I would like to concentrate on the period beginning from the early 1990s, when - following the demise of fundamental political differences - differences in aesthetics and habits began playing a stronger role. Considering the problem of mutual relations, one must fall back to an earlier source - a common source of inspiration, nameoly the transformations in Russia between the XIX and XX century. Someone once said that the main difference between Polish and German theater is that Germans tooks Meyerhold's ideas from the Russians (both those of a formal nature and the notion of being engaged), while Poles took those of Stanisławski.

This is of course an over simplification, but there is a grain of truth in it. When, 4 years ago, during the 'Dialog' festival in Wrocław, two scripts of plays by Chekov were compared to one another, one by Stefan Pucher (1965, Swan), and one by Paweł Miśkiewicz (1964, the Grapevine). I probably don't need to talk about how Pucher did it; Miśkiewicz, slightly modifying the aesthetic of his master - Krystian Lupa - created a dark play that was somewhat sentimental, with deeply penetrating emotions of the strange people gathered around Raniewski's salon. Despite certain interesting discoveries and solutions, the play was extremely traditional in the means used, performed very seriously, psychologically, at the highest intensity of emotion. The play garnered many awards and good reviews in Poland; the Russian critics gathered for the 'Dialogue' discarded it, prefering Pucher - where Konstanty looked like Ziggy Stardust and one had ice rather than a river, formal acting, with a constru