Chorea – próba odwrotu czy… powrót?

The article presents an analysis of selected elements of the Chorea Theatre Association play entitled Grotowski - An Attempt to Retreat. The discussion starts with the mutual relations between a series of ideas in contemporary theatrological discourse: the performance, the actor-performer and the actor-character. In the course of the argument, the categories ‘theatre of an attempt’ and ‘processual montage principle’ are introduced and used in the context of the issues involved in theatrical events and experiences. The first term refers to the contemporary theatrical practice of treating a theatre event as a sort of anthropological experiment, and the second refers to the compositional technique characteristic of this approach. The ‘theatre of an attempt’ formula, as a situation of confrontation in the tripartite structure of actor, viewer and stage-action reality, allows the anthropological dynamic of the theatre event, whose integral component is the mental activity of the spectator, to be captured. The ‘processual montage principle’ relates not only to the construction of the spectacle and the actor’s actions, but also to the attitudes and actions of the cognitive spectator, who, in participating in the theatrical process of becoming must himself attempt an imaginative reflection of this process. In conclusion, an interpretation of the play in the context of the ‘Everyman’ morality tradition is suggested.