The Oedipus Experiment: A Production Diary

Abstract

This past January in Vancouver, an event of unique proportions took place on the stage of the Vancouver Playhouse — a production of Seneca’s Oedipus directed by 29-year old Yurek Bogajewicz, a native-born Pole now living in Canada. Bogajewicz received his formal training from the distinguished Academy of Theatre Arts in Warsaw where he studied both acting and directing. In 1969, Jerzy Grotowski offered an extended workshop to the students at the Academy. Grotowski was impressed with Bogajewicz and invited him to join his Theatre Laboratory. Bogajewicz, however, opted to remain at the Academy to complete his more traditional training. On graduation, however, Bogajewicz contacted Grotowski again and soon became a member of the Theatre Laboratory. At that time, the Laboratory had passed from its “poor theatre” phase to what has come to be called the “Holiday Project, “an exploration of the actor as individual and of the total dissolution of the bounds between theatre and direct human experience.