Photo courtesy: Mariusz KubikInternationally-renowned playwright Sławomir Mrożek, who turned eighty in June, has come to Poland to attend his festival: ‘Mrożek for the 21st Century’.
On Friday he is to meet with readers in Warsaw, before going to Krakow for more meetings and a premiere of his recently discovered one-act play The Deer.
During Thursday’s function at the Theatre Institute in Warsaw, letters of congratulations and best wishes were read from President Komorowski, Prime Minister Tusk, Speaker of Parliament Schetyna and the mayors of Warsaw and Krakow.
The Minister of Culture, Bogdan Zdrojewski, decorated Mrozek with the Gloria Artis medal for outstanding achievements.
Mrozek’s visit coincides with the launch of the first volume of his diaries. The 700-page book covers the years 1962-69.
The second and third volume are to cover the 1970s and 80s. The diaries give deep insights into the writer’s personal life and literary career, as well as present a broad panorama of the Polish cultural and political scene spanning several decades.
The diaries devote much space to Mrozek’s friendship with the writers Witold Gombrowicz, Czeslaw Milosz, Konstanty Jelenski, Gustaw Herling-Grudziński, Jerzy Giedroyc and Jozef Czapski.
The author first emigrated from Poland in 1963. He lived in France for 22 years and then in Italy, the United States, Germany and Mexico, before returning to Poland, with his Mexican wife, in 1996. Three years ago he left for Nice where he currently lives.
Mrozek is among Poland’s most often translated authors. His best-known plays are Tango, The Emigres, The Ambassador, The Slaughterhouse and Love in the Crimea. This year Penguin published a collection of Mrozek’s short stories The Elephant, a satire on life in Poland under a totalitarian system. (mk/jb)