Lokalność w budowaniu porozumienia z publicznością na Górnym Śląsku

Abstract

Upper Silesia theaters — especially in recent times — are increasingly keen on using narrationsthat refer the past of a locale and the cultural identity of its residents in order to build communitynarrations, create an alternative to the dominant version of history, or revise the layersof collective and individual memory. Thus — just like their counterparts in Gdańsk, Legnica,or Wałbrzych in the past — they open up to local stories, very popular among audiences. Thearticle presents the process of Silesian stages developing towards utilizing the locality reservoiron the one hand, on the other — the strategies of the directors of local theaters, which use localityto build relations with the viewers. There are three available practices here: confrontationwith collective memory and consciousness, which means taking up controversial and usuallythus far unused subjects, as exemplified by Bielsko-Biała plays during Robert Talarczyk’s tenure(Testament Teodora Sixta, Żyd, Bitwa o Nangar Khel, or Miłość w Königshütte, among others);mythologizing and idealizing the past and constructing collective identity, as is the case witha few latest plays in Silesia Theatre (Polterabend, Piąta strona świata, Skazany na bluesa, amongothers); finally, an intermediate variant, executed in Sosnowiec (under the guidance of DorotaIgnatjew and Zbigniew Leraczyk), which means building collective myths with critical accents(Korzeniec, Koń, kobieta i kanarek, Czerwone Zagłębie, among others).