The Theatre of Tadeusz Kantor

Tadeusz Kantor (1915-1990) was a Polish director—with self-professed roots in the Dadaist movement—who became a leader on the experimental theatrical scene with the creation of his troupe, Cricot 2, in Krakow in the mid-1950s. Denis Bablet's two-hour plus documentary The Theatre of Tadeusz Kantor examines Kantor's philosophy of drama through the early 1980s, combining rehearsal footage, scenes from productions, and extensive excerpts from interviews in which Kantor attempts to explain the motives behind his art (a rather pompous voiceover narrator makes pronouncements about his work, fills in biographical blanks, and provides transitions). Casual viewers will probably find it difficult to connect either with Kantor's musings, which tend to be more cryptic than enlightening, or his plays, which come across more as highly repetitive rituals than dramas, marked by crowds marching about to plaintive music, almost painterly arrangements of characters, and extremely heavy allusions to Christian iconography and Polish history. The polyglot nature of the production doesn't help either, with Kantor speaking in French with English subtitles, the female narrator reciting her lines in a hyper-affected British accent, and the Polish of the plays presented with no translation at all. Due to Kantor's recognized influence, theatre collections will want to consider, but this is an optional purchase elsewhere. Aud: C, P. (F. Swietek)