Theatre
The Wedding
Wesele
Stanisław Wyspiański · 1901
Opening lines
Czepiec
Cóz tam, panie, w polityce?
What's new, sir, in politics?
Translation by Erostrate
Text quoted from wolnelektury.pl
Synopsis
On a November night, in a village house on the outskirts of Kraków, the wedding of a poet from the city and a peasant girl is being celebrated. In the neighbouring rooms, townspeople and villagers drink, dance, size one another up and talk about Poland. After midnight, a rose bush wrapped in straw for the winter comes to life and enters the feast, and the guests see figures from the national past appear one after another, a black knight, the jester Stańczyk, the bard Wernyhora.
Context
The play was born of a real wedding, that of the poet Lucjan Rydel and Jadwiga Mikołajczykówna, daughter of peasants from Bronowice, celebrated on 20 November 1900, of which the author was a witness; the text was ready at the beginning of 1901. Premiered at the municipal theatre of Kraków on 16 March 1901, in a staging by Adolf Walewski directed by the author, it caused a scandal, the wedding guests recognising themselves on stage. It was performed there a hundred and fifty-three times in a row and reached Lviv as early as May, but the Russian and Prussian censors banned its performance. The author published it at his own expense, in two editions the same year. Andrzej Wajda made a film of it.
Who it is for
Three acts in verse, a single night and a crowd of characters. An annotated edition helps in following the allusions to real people and to Polish history.
Prizes and reception
Regarded as its author's masterpiece and as the last great classic of Polish theatre.
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