Orfeusz. Sztuka w trzech aktach by Anna Świrszczyńska: Rereading the Myth

Abstract

Anna Świrszczyńska, in her original drama Orfeusz. Sztuka w trzech aktach (Orpheus. Play in Three Acts), a powerful and innovative post-war rewrite of the myth, first performed in 1946, transforms the myth and its essential features. Love, death and poetry are no longer the triad par excellence of the narrative, and Orpheus and Eurydice become fully aware of the own actions and choices. This update of the story involves a recent past which, after the war, required elaboration of mourning and grief, tending towards an ethics of awareness that frees the individual from guilt, and at the same time, opens up a path of hope with new prospects and new goals, notwithstanding fate, and overcoming fear.