18/08/2018
"[Sławomir] Mrożek is most famous for the iconic Strip-tease (1961) and Tango (1964), two plays that have been critically acclaimed as modern masterpieces of world drama. Strip-tease was Mrożek’s first attempt at serious political satire.
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If the world of Ionesco or Beckett is absurd because it’s illogical — human beings behave in irrational ways in response to an irrational universe — in Mrożek’s work the world is hyper-rational, and human beings respond to it in a hyper-rational way, as delineated by the circumstances, which then, in themselves, become absurd.
Mrożek’s authorial alter ego assumes the point of view and value system of the powerful and extends it to its logical end. Małgorzata Sugiera calls Mrożek’s work an example of the 'theatre of modal logic,' which creates the possibility for an alternate universe of truth-values. When used in semantics, modal logic defines the physical world according to pre-established conditions which, when changed, imply a new set of physical possibilities. By assuming the voice of the oppressor rather than the oppressed, Mrożek is able to create an alternative universe, which eventually falls apart in the deconstructive process of reductio ad absurdum. Thus, Mrożek shifts the borders of the comic frame, erasing the line between the comedic and the tragic impulses."
- Magda Romanska, 15 August 2018
A look into Polish writer Sławomir Mrożek's black humor illustrates how comedy and laughter challenge totalitarian rule.
