The first play ever written about Lech Wałęsa, the legendary head of 'Solidarity' and first President of democratic Poland, is being written as you read this.

Playwright Paweł Demirski, born 1979, the director of the Literary Theater "Wybrzeże" in Gdańsk, is writing a play with Wałęsa in the starring role. No play or movie has yet been made about Wałęsa. "I got the idea about a year ago," the playwright tells us, "Since I'm in Gdańsk, the heart of what went on in the 80s, and so close to the heroes of those times, maybe it's worth while to write something on the subject." For now, the playwright is studying all the facts. He himself remembers little. "I don't remember Marshall Law, or the August Accords." He's learning the history of Solidarity from underground sources, eye-witness accounts, and trade union archives. "I'm concentrating on the facts which lack grounding," he says, "for instance did Lech Wałęsa really jump over the shipyard's fence?" The playwright wants the play to begin with the events from August, 1980, and end with the Round Table talks in 1988/89. "This will be a history of Wałęsa and Solidarity seen fro