Stanisław Ignacy Witkiewicz (; 24 February 188518 September 1939), commonly known as Witkacy, was a

Polish Polish may refer to: * Anything from or related to Poland, a country in Europe * Polish language * Poles, people from Poland or of Polish descent * Polish chicken *Polish brothers (Mark Polish and Michael Polish, born 1970), American twin screenwr ...

writer, painter,

philosopher A philosopher is a person who practices or investigates philosophy. The term ''philosopher'' comes from the grc, φιλόσοφος, , translit=philosophos, meaning 'lover of wisdom'. The coining of the term has been attributed to the Greek th ...

, theorist, playwright, novelist, and photographer active before

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

and during the

interwar period In the history of the 20th century, the interwar period lasted from 11 November 1918 to 1 September 1939 (20 years, 9 months, 21 days), the end of the World War I, First World War to the beginning of the World War II, Second World War. The in ...

Life

Born in

Warsaw Warsaw ( pl, Warszawa, ), officially the Capital City of Warsaw,, abbreviation: ''m.st. Warszawa'' is the capital and largest city of Poland. The metropolis stands on the River Vistula in east-central Poland, and its population is officia ...

, Stanisław Ignacy Witkiewicz was a son of the painter, architect and an art critic Stanisław Witkiewicz. His mother was Maria Pietrzkiewicz Witkiewiczowa. Both of his parents were born in the

Samogitia Samogitia or Žemaitija ( Samogitian: ''Žemaitėjė''; see below for alternative and historical names) is one of the five cultural regions of Lithuania and formerly one of the two core administrative divisions of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania ...

n region of

Lithuania Lithuania (; lt, Lietuva ), officially the Republic of Lithuania ( lt, Lietuvos Respublika, links=no ), is a country in the Baltic region of Europe. It is one of three Baltic states and lies on the eastern shore of the Baltic Sea. Lithuania ...

. His godmother was the internationally famous actress

Helena Modrzejewska Helena Modrzejewska (; born Jadwiga Benda; 12 October 1840 – 8 April 1909), known professionally as Helena Modjeska, was a Polish actress who specialized in Shakespearean and tragic roles. She was successful first on the Polish stage. After e ...

Witkiewicz was reared at the family home in

Zakopane Zakopane ( Podhale Goral: ''Zokopane'') is a town in the extreme south of Poland, in the southern part of the Podhale region at the foot of the Tatra Mountains. From 1975 to 1998, it was part of Nowy Sącz Voivodeship; since 1999, it has been par ...

. In accordance with his father's

antipathy Antipathy is a dislike for something or somebody, the opposite of sympathy. While antipathy may be induced by experience, it sometimes exists without a rational cause-and-effect explanation being present to the individuals involved. Thus, the ori ...

to the "servitude of the school," he was

home-schooled Homeschooling or home schooling, also known as home education or elective home education (EHE), is the education of school-aged children at home or a variety of places other than a school. Usually conducted by a parent, tutor, or an onlin ...

and encouraged to develop his talents across a range of creative fields. Against his fathers wishes he studied at the

Kraków Academy of Fine Arts The Jan Matejko Academy of Fine Arts in Kraków ( pl, Akademia Sztuk Pięknych im. Jana Matejki w Krakowie, usually abbreviated to ''ASP''), is a public institution of higher education located in the centre of Kraków, Poland. It is the oldest Pol ...

with

Józef Mehoffer Józef Mehoffer (19 March 1869 – 8 July 1946) was a Polish painter and decorative artist, one of the leading artists of the Young Poland movement and one of the most revered Polish artists of his time. Life Mehoffer was born in Ropczyce, ...

and Jan Stanisławski. Witkiewicz was close friends with composer

Karol Szymanowski Karol Maciej Szymanowski (; 6 October 188229 March 1937) was a Polish composer and pianist. He was a member of the modernist Young Poland movement that flourished in the late 19th and early 20th century. Szymanowski's early works show the inf ...

and, from childhood, with

Bronisław Malinowski Bronisław Kasper Malinowski (; 7 April 1884 – 16 May 1942) was a Polish-British anthropologist and ethnologist whose writings on ethnography, social theory, and field research have exerted a lasting influence on the discipline of anthropol ...

and

Zofia Romer Zofia Romer ''née'' Dembowska (February 16, 1885 – August 23, 1972) was a Polish painter. She was born in 1885 in Dorpat (now Tartu, Estonia) to well-known physician Tadeusz Dembowski and his wife Matylda. She grew up in Lithuania and Poland ...

. Romer was romantically linked to both Bronisław Malinowski and Witkiewicz. He had a tumultuous affair with prominent actress Irena Solska who according to Anna Micińska is represented as the heroine Akne Montecalfi in his first novel, ''The 622 Downfalls of Bungo or The Demonic Woman'', 1911. According to Micińska he also represented himself as the character Bungo and Malinowski as the Duke of Nevermore. The unfinished novel, which was not published until 1972, also describes erotic encounters between Bungo and the Duke of Nevermore. Taught wet plate photography by his father, it was during this period that he also began producing the intimate portrait photography for which he is known; producing striking portraits of his circle in Zakopane and many self-portraits. In 1914 following a crisis in Witkiewicz's personal life due to the suicide of his fiancée Jadwiga Janczewska, for which he blamed himself, he was invited by Malinowski to act as draftsman and photographer on his anthropological expedition to the then

Territory of Papua The Territory of Papua comprised the southeastern quarter of the island of New Guinea from 1883 to 1975. In 1883, the Government of Queensland annexed this territory for the British Empire. The United Kingdom Government refused to ratify the a ...

, by way of

Ceylon Sri Lanka (, ; si, ශ්‍රී ලංකා, Śrī Laṅkā, translit-std=ISO (); ta, இலங்கை, Ilaṅkai, translit-std=ISO ()), formerly known as Ceylon and officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, is an ...

and Australia. The venture was interrupted by the onset of

. After quarrelling with Malinowski in Australia, Witkiewicz who was by birth a subject of the

Russian Empire The Russian Empire was an empire and the final period of the Russian monarchy from 1721 to 1917, ruling across large parts of Eurasia. It succeeded the Tsardom of Russia following the Treaty of Nystad, which ended the Great Northern War. ...

, travelled to

St Petersburg Saint Petersburg ( rus, links=no, Санкт-Петербург, a=Ru-Sankt Peterburg Leningrad Petrograd Piter.ogg, r=Sankt-Peterburg, p=ˈsankt pʲɪtʲɪrˈburk), formerly known as Petrograd (1914–1924) and later Leningrad (1924–1991), i ...

(then Petrograd) from Sydney and was commissioned as an officer in the

Pavlovsky Regiment Pavlovsky Guard Regiment (russian: Павловский лейб-гвардии полк) was a Russian Imperial Guard infantry regiment. It was formed out of 2 battalions of the Moscow Grenadiers in November 19, 1796. They were given the title ...

of the

Imperial Russian Army The Imperial Russian Army (russian: Ру́сская импера́торская а́рмия, tr. ) was the armed land force of the Russian Empire, active from around 1721 to the Russian Revolution of 1917. In the early 1850s, the Russian Ar ...

. His ailing father, a Polish patriot, was deeply grieved by his son's decision and died in 1915 without seeing him again. In July 1916 he was seriously wounded in the battle on Stokhid River in what is now Ukraine and was evacuated to St Petersburg where he witnessed the

Russian Revolution The Russian Revolution was a period of Political revolution (Trotskyism), political and social revolution that took place in the former Russian Empire which began during the First World War. This period saw Russia abolish its monarchy and ad ...

. He claimed that he worked out his philosophical principles during an artillery barrage, and that when the Revolution broke out he was elected political commissar of his regiment. His later works would show his fear of social revolution and foreign invasion, often couched in absurdist language. He had begun to support himself through portrait painting and continued to do so on his return to Zakopane in

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It is divided into 16 administrative provinces called voivodeships, covering an area of . Poland has a population of over 38 million and is the fifth-most populous ...

. He soon entered into a major creative phase, setting out his principles in ''New Forms in Painting'' and ''Introduction to the Theory of Pure Form in the Theatre''. He associated with a group of "formist" artists in the early 1920s and wrote most of his plays during this period. Of about forty plays written by Witkiewicz between 1918 and 1925, twenty-one survive, and only ''Jan Maciej Karol Hellcat'' met with any public success during the author's lifetime. The original Polish manuscript of ''The Crazy Locomotive'' was also lost; the play, back-translated from two French versions, was not published until 1962. Witkacy Autoportret 1924

After 1925, and taking the name 'Witkacy', the artist ironically re-branded his portrait painting which provided his economic sustenance as ''The S.I. Witkiewicz Portrait Painting Company'', with the tongue in cheek motto: "The customer must always be satisfied". Several of the so-called grades of portraits were offered, from the merely representational to the more

expressionistic Expressionism is a modernist movement, initially in poetry and painting, originating in Northern Europe around the beginning of the 20th century. Its typical trait is to present the world solely from a subjective perspective, distorting it rad ...

and the narcotics-assisted. Many of his paintings were annotated with mnemonics listing the drugs taken while painting a particular painting, even if this happened to be only a cup of coffee. He also varied the spelling of his name, signing himself ''Witkac, Witkatze, Witkacjusz, Vitkacius'' and ''Vitecasse'' — the last being French for "breaks quickly". In the late 1920s he turned to novel-writing, writing two works, ''Farewell to Autumn'' and ''

Insatiability ''Insatiability'' ( pl, Nienasycenie) is a speculative fiction novel by the Polish writer, dramatist, philosopher, painter and photographer, Stanisław Ignacy Witkiewicz (Witkacy). ''Nienasycenie'' was written in 1927 and was first published in 1 ...

''. The latter, his major work, encompasses geopolitics, psychoactive drugs, and philosophy. In 1935 he was awarded the Golden Laurel of the

Polish Academy of Literature The Polish Academy of Literature ( pl, Polska Akademia Literatury, PAL) was one of the most important state institutions of literary life in the Second Polish Republic, operating between 1933 and 1939 with the headquarters in Warsaw. It was foun ...

for his novels. During the 1930s, Witkiewicz published a text on his experiences of narcotics, including

peyote The peyote (; ''Lophophora williamsii'' ) is a small, spineless cactus which contains psychoactive alkaloids, particularly mescaline. ''Peyote'' is a Spanish word derived from the Nahuatl (), meaning "caterpillar cocoon", from a root , "to gl ...

, and pursued his interests in philosophy writing, ''Concepts and Principles Implied by the Concept of Existence'' 1935. In 1934 he finishes his most famous literary work - drama Szewcy, finally published in 1948. He also promoted emerging writers such as

Bruno Schulz Bruno Schulz (12 July 1892 – 19 November 1942) was a Polish writer, fine artist, literary critic and art teacher. He is regarded as one of the great Polish-language prose stylists of the 20th century. In 1938, he was awarded the Polish Academy ...

Death

Shortly after

was

invaded An invasion is a military offensive in which large numbers of combatants of one geopolitical entity aggressively enter territory owned by another such entity, generally with the objective of either: conquering; liberating or re-establishing con ...

by Germany in September 1939, Witkiewicz escaped with his young lover Czesława to the rural

frontier A frontier is the political and geographical area near or beyond a boundary. A frontier can also be referred to as a "front". The term came from French in the 15th century, with the meaning "borderland"—the region of a country that fronts o ...

town of Jeziory, in what was then

eastern Poland Eastern Poland is a macroregion in Poland comprising the Lublin, Podkarpackie, Podlaskie, Świętokrzyskie, and Warmian-Masurian voivodeships. The make-up of the distinct macroregion is based not only of geographical criteria, but also econo ...

. After hearing the news of the

Soviet invasion of Poland The Soviet invasion of Poland was a military operation by the Soviet Union without a formal declaration of war. On 17 September 1939, the Soviet Union invaded Poland from the east, 16 days after Nazi Germany invaded Poland from the west. Subse ...

on 17 September 1939, Witkacy committed suicide on 18 September by taking a

drug overdose A drug overdose (overdose or OD) is the ingestion or application of a drug or other substance in quantities much greater than are recommended.

and trying to slit his wrists. He convinced Czesława to attempt suicide with him by consuming Luminal, but she survived. The film ''Mystification'' (2010), written and directed by Jacek Koprowicz proposes, in surrealist fashion, that Witkiewicz faked his own death and lived secretly in Poland until 1968.

Legacy

Witkiewicz had died in some obscurity but his reputation began to rise soon after the war, which had destroyed his life and devastated Poland. Outside of Poland his work was discussed as a precursor to post-ww2 European drama in

Martin Esslin , birth_date = , birth_place = Budapest, Austria-Hungary , death_date = , death_place = London, England, UK , education = University of ViennaMax Reinhardt Seminar, ...

's influential "

Theatre of the Absurd The Theatre of the Absurd (french: théâtre de l'absurde ) is a post–World War II designation for particular plays of absurdist fiction written by a number of primarily European playwrights in the late 1950s. It is also a term for the style of ...

" 1961, and later in Hans-Theis Lehmann's "Postdramatic Theatre" 2006. Konstanty Puzyna collected his surviving dramatic writings in two volumes in "Dramaty" (Dramas) 1962 which revived interest in his plays in Poland. Through his translations and scholarship,

Daniel Gerould Daniel Charles Gerould (March 28, 1928 – February 13, 2012) was the Lucille Lortel Distinguished Professor of Theatre and Comparative Literature at the CUNY Graduate Center and Director of Publications of the Martin E. Segal Theatre Center. A sc ...

introduced English-language audiences to the writings of Witkiewicz.

Czesław Miłosz Czesław Miłosz (, also , ; 30 June 1911 – 14 August 2004) was a Polish-American poet, prose writer, translator, and diplomat. Regarded as one of the great poets of the 20th century, he won the 1980 Nobel Prize in Literature. In its citation ...

framed his argument in ''

The Captive Mind ''The Captive Mind'' ( Polish: ''Zniewolony umysł'') is a 1953 work of nonfiction by Polish writer, poet, academic and Nobel laureate Czesław Miłosz. It was first published in English in a translation by Jane Zielonko in 1953. Overview ''T ...

'' around a discussion of Witkiewicz's novel, ''Insatiability''. The artist and theater director

Tadeusz Kantor Tadeusz Kantor (6 April 1915 – 8 December 1990) was a Polish painter, assemblage and Happenings artist, set designer and theatre director. Kantor is renowned for his revolutionary theatrical performances in Poland and abroad. Laureate of ...

was inspired by the ''Cricot'' group, through which Witkiewicz had presented his final plays in

Kraków Kraków (), or Cracow, is the second-largest and one of the oldest cities in Poland. Situated on the Vistula River in Lesser Poland Voivodeship, the city dates back to the seventh century. Kraków was the official capital of Poland until 1596 ...

. Kantor brought many of the plays back into currency, first in Poland and then internationally, including ''The Cuttlefish'' (1956) and ''The Water Hen'' (1969). Visual artist

Paulina Olowska Paulina Olowska (born 1976, Gdańsk) is a Polish painter and photographer, who also works in the field of performance and video-art, social action and applied art. The areas of her artistic explorations are modernist utopias and research on the w ...

produced Witkiewicz's ''The Mother: An Unsavoury Play in Two Acts and an Epilogue'' at the

Tate Modern Tate Modern is an art gallery located in London. It houses the United Kingdom's national collection of international modern and contemporary art, and forms part of the Tate group together with Tate Britain, Tate Liverpool and Tate St Ives. It is ...

in 2015. Films which have Witkiewicz as the subject include ''Tumor Witkacego'' 1985, ''Mystification'' 2010 and ''Witkacy and Malinowski: a cinematic séance in 23 scenes'' 2018. Films based on his works include ''Ludiot i kalugericata'' 1968,''Farewell to Autumn'' 1990, ''Insatiability'' 2003,''Madame Tutli-Putli'' 2007 and ''Nursery Rhyme of a Madman'' 2017. Witkiewicz's paintings and pastel drawings are in the collections of the

National Museum, Warsaw The National Museum in Warsaw ( pl, Muzeum Narodowe w Warszawie), popularly abbreviated as MNW, is a national museum in Warsaw, one of the largest museums in Poland and the largest in the capital. It comprises a rich collection of ancient art ( Eg ...

, the

National Museum, Kraków The National Museum in Kraków ( pl, Muzeum Narodowe w Krakowie), popularly abbreviated as MNK, is the largest museum in Poland, and the main branch of Poland's National Museum, which has several independent branches with permanent collections arou ...

, Museum of Literature, Warsaw and the Museum of Central Pomerania with 125 works in Słupsk Castle. The

Metropolitan Museum of Art The Metropolitan Museum of Art of New York City, colloquially "the Met", is the largest art museum in the Americas. Its permanent collection contains over two million works, divided among 17 curatorial departments. The main building at 1000 ...

and

Museum of Modern Art The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) is an art museum located in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, on 53rd Street between Fifth and Sixth Avenues. It plays a major role in developing and collecting modern art, and is often identified as one of ...

in New York, and the

Art Gallery of New South Wales The Art Gallery of New South Wales (AGNSW), founded as the New South Wales Academy of Art in 1872 and known as the National Art Gallery of New South Wales between 1883 and 1958, is located in The Domain, Sydney, Australia. It is the most importa ...

, Sydney hold important examples of his photography. The Villa Oksza Gallery of 20th century art of the Tatra Museum in

holds important examples of his photography and pastel drawings. In the postwar period,

People's Republic of Poland The Polish People's Republic ( pl, Polska Rzeczpospolita Ludowa, PRL) was a country in Central Europe that existed from 1947 to 1989 as the predecessor of the modern Republic of Poland. With a population of approximately 37.9 million nea ...

's Ministry of Culture decided to exhume Witkiewicz's body, move it to

, and give it a solemn funeral. This was carried out according to plan, though no one was allowed to open the coffin that had been delivered by the Soviet authorities. On 26 November 1994, the Polish Ministry of Culture and Art ordered the exhumation of the presumed grave of Witkiewicz in Zakopane. Genetic tests on the remaining bones proved that the body had belonged to an unknown woman — a final absurdist joke, fifty years after the publication of Witkacy's last novel.

Works

Art philosophy

* ' (1919), translated into English as ''New Forms in Painting and the Misunderstandings Arising Therefrom'' (in ''The Witkiewicz Reader'', Quartet, 1993) * ''Szkice estetyczne'' (Aesthetic Sketches, 1922)

Novels

* ''622 Upadki Bunga czyli demoniczna kobieta'' (1911) partial translation into English as ''The 622 Downfalls of Bungo or The Demonic Woman'' (in ''The Witkiewicz Reader'') * ''Pożegnanie jesieni'' (1927) partial translation into English as ''Farewell to Autumn'' (in ''The Witkiewicz Reader'') * '' Nienasycenie'' (1930) translated into English as ''Insatiability'' (Quartet Encounter, 1985)

Plays

* ''Maciej Korbowa i Bellatrix'' (''Maciej Korbowa and Bellatrix'') (1918) * ''Pragmatyści'' (1919) (translated into English as ''The Pragmatists'') * ''Mister Price, czyli Bzik tropikalny'' (1920) (translated into English as ''Mr Price, or Tropical Madness'') * ''Tumor Mózgowicz'' (1920) (translated into English as ''Tumor Brainiowicz'') * ''Nowe wyzwolenie'' (1920) (translated into English as ''The New Deliverance'') * ''Oni'' (1920) (translated into English as ''They'') * ''Panna Tutli-Putli'' (1920) (''Miss Tootli-Pootli'') * ''W małym dworku'' (1921) (translated into English as ''Country House'') * ''Niepodległość trójkątów'' (1921) (translated into English as ''The Independence of Triangles'') * ''Metafizyka dwugłowego cielęcia'' (1921) (translated into English as ''Metaphysics of a Two-Headed Calf'') * ''Gyubal Wahazar, czyli Na przełęczach bezsensu'' (translated into English as ''Gyubal Wahazar, or Along the Cliffs of the Absurd: A Non-Euclidean Drama in Four Acts'') (1921) * ''Kurka Wodna'' (1921) (Translated into English as ''The Water Hen'') * ''Bezimienne dzieło'' (1921) (translated into English as ''The Anonymous Work: Four Acts of a Rather Nasty Nightmare'') * ''Mątwa'' (1922) (translated into English as ''The Cuttlefish, or The Hyrcanian World View'') * ''Nadobnisie i koczkodany, czyli Zielona pigułka'' (1922) (Translated into English as ''Dainty Shapes and Hairy Apes, or The Green Pill: A Comedy with Corpses'') * ''Jan Maciej Karol Wścieklica'' (1922) (translated into English as ''Jan Maciej Karol Hellcat'') * ''Wariat i zakonnica'' (1923) (translated into English as ''The Madman and the Nun'') * ''Szalona lokomotywa'' (1923) (translated into English as ''The Crazy Locomotive'') * ''Janulka, córka Fizdejki'' (1923) (translated into English as ''Janulka, Daughter of Fizdejko'') * ''Matka'' (1924) translated into English as ''The Mother'' (in ''The Mother & Other Unsavoury Plays'', Applause, 1993) * ''Sonata Belzebuba'' (1925) (translated into English as ''The Beelzebub Sonata'') * ''Szewcy'' (1931–34) translated into English as ''The Shoemakers'' (in ''The Mother & Other Unsavoury Plays'', Applause, 1993)

Filmography

* ''Witkacy z Niną w Warszawie'' (1927), comedy film by Stanisław Ignacy Witkiewicz. Starring him and his wife Jadwiga in the city of Warsaw. Film housed in the Adam Mickiewicz Museum of Literature in Warsaw. Details: black and white film reel Pathé 9.5 mm, 5 minutes, silent film; remastered in 4K quality in 2015.

Other works

* ''Narkotyki — niemyte dusze'' (1932), partial translation into English as ''Narcotics'' (in ''The Witkiewicz Reader'') * ''Pojęcia i twierdzenia implikowane przez pojęcie istnienia'' (Concepts and Statements Implied by the Idea of Existence) (1935) * ''Jedyne wyjście'' * ''Kompozycia fantastyczna'' * ''Pocałunek mongolskiego księcia''

Sample artwork

File:Jadwiga Janczewska by S. I. Witkeiwicz 1913.jpg, Jadwiga Janczewska, Zakopane
1913 File:Witkacy Czarny Staw.jpg, Black Lake
1907, Tatra Museum in Zakopane File:Witkacy Zima w Zakopanem.jpg, Winter Landscape at Zakopane
after 1930, Museum of Fine Arts, Szépművészeti, Budapest File:MrsBerensonbyWitkacy.jpg, Bronisława Wieniawa-Długoszowska
1918 File:Witkacy Nova Aurigae.jpg, Nova Aurigae
1918, Adam Mickiewicz Museum of Literature, Warsaw File:Witkacy Kompozycja 1.jpg, Composition
1922,

File:Witkiewicz-Fantazja-Bajka.jpg, Fantasy - Fairy-tale
1922,

File:Witkacy-Fałsz kobiety (Maryla Grossmanowa i autoportret).jpg, Self-portrait with Mrs. Maryla Grosmanowa
1927,

File:Stanisław Ignacy Witkiewicz - Autoportret.jpg, Self-portrait
1930,

National Museum in Wrocław National may refer to: Common uses * Nation or country ** Nationality – a ''national'' is a person who is subject to a nation, regardless of whether the person has full rights as a citizen Places in the United States * National, Maryland, ce ...

File:Stanisław Ignacy Witkiewicz Portret chłopca 1934 rok.jpg, Portrait of a boy
1934,

Silesian Museum (Katowice) Silesian Museum in Katowice ( pl, Muzeum Śląskie w Katowicach) is a museum in the City of Katowice, Poland. History The museum was founded in 1929 by the Silesian Sejm, while the region was recovering from the Silesian Uprisings. In the XX ...

File:Bunia.jpg,

1935 File:Witkacy-Autoportret 1938.jpg, Self-portrait
1938,

Performances of work

* ''The Crazy Locomotive'' (''Szalona lokomotywa'') received its New York premier at the

Chelsea Theatre Chelsea Theatre is a studio theatre located on the Kings Road in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, ...

in 1977, under the direction of

Des McAnuff Desmond Steven McAnuff (born June 19, 1952) is the American-Canadian former artistic director of Canada's Stratford Festival and director of such Broadway musical theatre productions as '' Big River'', '' The Who's Tommy'' and '' Jersey Boys''. ...

. The

Obie Award The Obie Awards or Off-Broadway Theater Awards are annual awards originally given by ''The Village Voice'' newspaper to theatre artists and groups in New York City. In September 2014, the awards were jointly presented and administered with the A ...

-winning production starred

Dwight Schultz William Dwight Schultz (born November 24, 1947) is an American television, film and voice actor. He is known for his roles as Captain "Howling Mad" Murdock on the 1980s action series ''The A-Team'' and as Reginald Barclay in the ''Star Trek'' ...

, Bob DeFrank and

Glenn Close Glenn Close (born March 19, 1947) is an American actress. Throughout her career spanning over four decades, Close has garnered numerous accolades, including two Screen Actors Guild Awards, three Golden Globe Awards, three Primetime Emmy Awards ...

in leading roles. The Water Hen - NYC, 1983

* Two New York premiers of Witkacy plays: ''The Madman and the Nun'' ''(Wariat i zakonnica)'' in 1979 under the direction of Paul Berman and ''The Water Hen'' ''(Kurka Wodna)'' directed by

Brad Mays Brad Mays (born May 30, 1955) is an independent filmmaker and stage director, living and working in Los Angeles, California. Background and education Mays was raised in the Edinburg section of West Windsor Township, New Jersey, attending the ...

were staged by the ''Theatre Off-Park'', in 1983. Broadway producer / Theatre Off-Park managing director Patricia Flynn Peate produced both plays, which were well received by critics and audiences alike. Future

New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid d ...

theatre critic Mark Matousek, then writing for the theatrical journal ''Other Stages'', praised ''The Water Hen'' for "masterful comic direction," and the piece was videotaped for permanent inclusion in the

Lincoln Center Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts (also simply known as Lincoln Center) is a complex of buildings in the Lincoln Square neighborhood on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. It has thirty indoor and outdoor facilities and is host to 5 millio ...

Billy Rose Theatre Collection The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, Dorothy and Lewis B. Cullman Center, at 40 Lincoln Center Plaza, is located in Manhattan, New York City, at the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts on the Upper West Side, between the Met ...

. * The British premiere of "They" "(Oni)" was presented at the Polish Theatre Hammersmith, London by POSK, directed by Paul Brightwell in 1984 * The New York premiere of ''The Shoemakers'' ''(Szewcy)'' was presented by the ''Jean Cocteau Repertory'' under the direction of Włodzimierz Herman in 1987. * ''The Madman and the Nun'' was presented in 1989 by ''The Cosmic Bicycle Theatre'' at the ''Summer Music from Greensborough'', a Classical Music Festival in Greensborough, Vermont, and in Boston, at The Charlestown Working Theatre. Directed by Jonathan Edward Cross .k.a. Jonny ClockWorks The production used Actors alongside Life-sized Puppets. Two of the original Puppet Figures are in the collection of the Witkacy Teatre in Zarkopane' Poland. * The New York premiere of Witkacy's ''Tumor Brainiowicz'' presented by ''

La MaMa ETC La MaMa Experimental Theatre Club (La MaMa E.T.C.) is an Off-Off-Broadway theatre founded in 1961 by Ellen Stewart, African Americans, African-American theatre director, producer, and fashion designer. Located in Manhattan's East Village, Manhatt ...

'' was performed by ''The Theatre of a Two-Headed Calf'' (named after the Witkacy play ''Metaphysics of a Two-Headed Calf''), under the direction of Brooke O'Harra. This production was followed by Witkacy's ''The Mother'' in 2003, also under O'Harra's direction and also a New York premier. The production featured puppets and video. * In 2019 ''Witkacy/Two-Headed Calf'', a collaboration between CalArts Center for New Performance and STUDIO teatrgaleria, Warsaw, was directed by Natalia Korczakowska

References

* Sarah Boxer,
A Polish Satirist Obsessed with Identity
. ''

,'' 24 April 1998 * F. Coniglione, * Halina Florynska-Lalewicz, Monika Mokrzycka-Pokora, Irena Kossowska
Stanisław Ignacy Witkiewicz (Witkacy)
at culture.pl * Daniel Gerould, ''Witkacy: Stanisław Ignacy Witkiewicz as an Imaginative Writer'' (University of Washington Press, 1981)

* Łozińska Hempel, Maria (1986). ''Z łańcucha wspomnień.'' Wydawnictwo Literackie.

External links

*
Stanisław Ignacy Witkiewicz (Witkacy)
at Culture.pl
Stanisław Ignacy Witkiewicz (Witkacy)
at poezja.org
Witkiewicz & Futurism – The Crazy Locomotive

Witkacy's Madness: The Lost Manuscript of a Total Artist
on Culture.pl {{DEFAULTSORT:Witkiewicz, Stanislaw Ignacy 1885 births 1939 suicides Modern painters 20th-century Polish dramatists and playwrights Polish male dramatists and playwrights 20th-century Polish painters 20th-century Polish male artists Photographers from Warsaw Suicides by sharp instrument in Ukraine Golden Laurel of the Polish Academy of Literature Writers from Warsaw Artists from Warsaw People from Warsaw Governorate People from Zakopane Artists who committed suicide 20th-century Polish male writers Polish male painters 20th-century Polish philosophers Drug-related suicides in Ukraine