Grotowski, Jerzy

Grotowski, Jerzy (1933-1999), Polish experimental theatre director, notable for his theory of a “poor theatre”, which emphasizes the essence of performance without the distraction of elaborate staging or spectacle.

After training in Kraków and Moscow, Grotowski began his career as a director and theoretician of drama by establishing his own Theatre of 13 Rows, which he ran from 1959 to 1964. In 1965 he moved the group to Wrocław, renaming it the Theatre Laboratory. Grotowski and his company became famous for loose adaptations of classics, using a text as the starting point from which to explore the role of the actor and the relationship between performance and audience. His methods often resulted in several different versions of the same productions, for example Akropolis by Wyspiański (1966), in two versions, and his own original work Apocalypsis cum Figuris (1969), which appeared in three versions. In emphasizing the importance of the actor's body over the words of the text, and in reducing the physical distance between actors and spectators within the theatre space, Grotowski created an intense, disturbingly intimate mode of performance. His acting and directing techniques had a profound influence on contemporary directors and performers, including Peter Brook.

Theatre Laboratory disbanded in 1976, and thereafter Grotowski continued his teaching and theoretical work away from the public, teaching at two American universities, and in Italy. His collection of theoretical writings, Towards a Poor Theatre, was published in 1968 with an introduction by Brook, and has become a standard text for drama students and practitioners.