After a 20 year break, political theater is all the rage in Poland. Young people are traveling the country, following the plays of Klata, Wojcieszek and Demirski. They would never go see some of the classical theater genre, but given the intriguing and innovative interpretation of the classics that Polish political theater is serving up, they are suddenly knocking down doors to get tickets.

"In Poland, there are two types of theater," says Maciej Nowak, the direktor of the Zbigniew Raszewski Theatrical Institute, "the first type shuns the debate over public affairs. An example of this type of theater are the National theater, the Ateneum theater, or the plays of Krystian Lupa. The second type of theater expresses itself critically on the subject of society, revises stereotypes and provokes discussion." Representatives of this second type of theater are to be found in the likes of Jacek Głomb in Legnica, Bartosz Szydłowski in Nowa Huta, Jan Klata, Przemysław Wojcieszek or the Rozmaitości Theater in Warsaw, under the directorship of Grzegorz Jarzyna. Nowak, once the director general of the Wybrzeże Theater in Gdańsk, also played a part in moulding politically engaged theater. He initiated the City Theater Express; the plays he put on were a reaction to current events. They were written by playwrights as well as journalists. Actors would meet the people whose fate t