Antygone

photo: Stanislaw Markowski

Andrzej Wajda started the work on Sophocles' tragedy in extraordinary circumstances of Polish martial law, and this determined his perspective regarding the play (...). By introducing contemporary costume and dramatic expression, he placed the Greek masterpiece in the mainstream of living culture and made each viewer its actual addressee. Antigone gave rise to heated discussions exactly because of this clear message - totally accepted by some, it was equally radically rejected by others. It might be said that the popular reception of Antigone constituted a kind of sequel to the performance, transferred onto the stage of contemporary life.

The motto of performance in the Stary Theatre in Cracow could well have been a line from Czeslaw Milosz's poem Antigone: As long as I live, I shall cry: no.