STRIPTEASE, REPEAT PERFORMANCE, AND THE PROPHETS -- Slawomir Mrozek

Grove Press, Inc -- hc
New York -- ©1972 -- 166pp
ISBN: 0-394-48280-8


In Striptease, two characters - one an intellectual, the other an activist - find themselves inside a room where a gigantic hand instructs them to remove their clothes until both act out an elaborate dance of rationalized submission. In Repeat Performance, a middle-aged man on an escapade with his sonÕs young wife encounters a ghost from his own youth - the charismatic political leader to whom he had sworn everlasting allegiance, and whose spirit has now returned to claim either the father or the son. The Prophets tells what happens when two prophets show up to fulfill the prophesies instead of just one. [from Amazon.com]

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It has been ages since I've read any Slawomir Mrozek and I was a little worried that either he, or I, might not have aged too well. Fortunately my fears were unfounded. A good playwright tells a story in a strong fashion, and Mrozek is a good playwright.

Theatre of the Absurd is certainly not something that is commonly popular. In fact, I often wonder if it's only popular as history ... studied after the fact. But while I agree that Mrozek's play are absurdist, I'd rather label them Theatre of Metaphor, for he tends to be telling us something by showing us something slightly different. In "Striptease" we learn about power (the power of a single white glove), imprisonment, and the fear of the unknown.

"The Prophets" is a wonderful, humourous, absurdist metaphor for our popular religions.

"Repeat Performance" is the weakest of the plays in this collection. The only two act play (the others are both one acts) in the book, this one seems to try just a little too hard to make a point. There is little, to no subtext or subplot, but Mrozek wears it all on his sleeve. If we, as an audience, don't have to think about it and say "Ah ha! I think I know what you're doing" then we just don't have fun.

Still, the U.S. and Britain just don't produce fascinating works the way Poland does. Not since Jean-Claude van Itallie have we had a playwright expound so metaphorically.