Grotowski: Memory and Discontinuity

Abstract

The article examines the points in Grotowski’s work which have been a major focus of study in Italy. These are: the book Towards a Poor Theatre, the performance The Constant Prince (the film version), the shift from Stanislavsky. “Lapses of memory” emerge in each of these. The book does not cover actor training for the period 1963-65, which is focused on the work with Cieslak for the Constant Prince; and the same discontinuity may be found in the performance, due to the alternative nature of Cieslak’s performance. The shift from Stanislavsky may be seen as one from teaching to transmission: as the assumption of a world apart, as condition and substance of the possibility of transmitting what Grotowski calls “the interior process”.