“Quem queritis? (Whom do you seek?)” “From these words, partly spoken, partly sung, according to the ancient custom, still stemming from antiquity, European theatre began.” The “Quem Quaeritis?” was an exchange of one question, one answer, and one command between the Angels at Christ’s tomb and the three Marys, the Virgin Mary, Mary Magdalene, and Mary, the sister of Lazarus. This question remains a challenge for theater even today. The lecture will be a reflection on the searches that theater faces today. What is its meaning today, what does it seek, what does it want to tell? How to explain the paradox that “Theater is a lie that makes us realize the Truth.”
Jarosław Kilian is a professor at the National Academy of Dramatic Art in Warsaw. He is an art historian and stage director. He held scholarships of the British Council and the US Department of State. As a stage director, he trained under the guidance of Peter Brook in Vienna. Since 2016 he has been the director of the Teatr Lalka in Warsaw. He has directed operas, outdoor performances, plays for children, and primarily stage performances of European and Polish classic masterpieces of Molière, William Shakespeare, Juliusz Słowacki and Aleksander Fredro.