Projekt Teatr. Schulz i Grotowski

Schulz and Grotowski? I am connecting these two names with caution. A pretext to search for something they might have in common is the theater-laboratory (the literary one, described by Schulz in The Republic of Dreams and the real one, co-directed by Jerzy Grotowski and Ludwik Flaszen first in Opole and then in Wrocław). It is a risky claim that Grotowski was inspired by Schulz or that Schulz anticipated his ideas. Still, there are some similarities: the phantasm of a degraded book, “philosophizing in the context of frolic,” approaching ritual as if it were cabaret, transgression by lightness. Years ago, Jan Błoński made a reference to an essay by Flaszen, called “The Book,” where the author “seemed to have connected Schulz’s dreams with the theater theory of Jerzy Grotowski.” But perhaps I am trying to bring together Schulz and Grotowski too hastily? Maybe Schulz was actually closer to Flaszen, who in his essays returns to Schulz, paraphrases Schulz, writes like Schulz? Or maybe it is only “my Grotowski” – mine because interpreted through Schulz? Does it mean “untrue”?