Clio na konwiktowej scenie w Chyrowie

Abstrakt

According to the tradition of the Society of Jesus the school theatre constituted an indispensible part of education in Chyrów. Based on preserved sources 750 plays were staged between 1886 and 1939. The majority of these plays were tragedies and historical dramas. These were the most popular theatrical forms in the college. They were staged during the most important monastic, religious and state holidays. The authors of the plays were secular and monastic priests, including the tutors of the school theatre in Chyrów. The works of Polish authors were also staged, especially the popular dramas of Władysław Ludwik Anczyc and Józef Szujski, which indicates approval for the views of representatives of positivist historical drama. These plays, with their little poetic value, owed their success to the use of national paraphernalia, popular clichés and patriotic gestures. With time the repertoire of the college theatre began including more ambitious works belonging to the classics of Polish and world literature, now found on school required reading lists. These were staged mostly in fragments. Subjects connected with national history were interwoven with images of history adapted to the stage by the likes of Schiller, Shakespeare or Calderon de la Barca. Regardless of the historical setting, the aim of the presented images was similar: to provide both actors and audience with heroic and holy role models, to convince them that providence is watching over the fate of Poland and of the world, that justice will inevitably be prevail, and that the enslavement of the nation, even through no fault of its own, is only a transitional period. Spectators were also shown the terrible consequences of succumbing to one's ambition, pride and self-interest. The admired hero is always noble, responsible for the fate of the community which he leads, who finds himself in a position where he has to choose between his interests and the values he espouses.

The educational mission of the theatre in Chyrów, which made use of historical subjects, consisted in convincing the spectators of the importance and responsibility resting on the shoulders of leaders. We must remember - it was this role that the students were being prepared for. In this sense the theatre in Chyrów was the school of national attitudes and citizenship.