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Description

Gabriela Zapolska (1857-1921) was an actor; journalist and playwright. She was born during the 123 year partition of Poland by Austria; Prussia and Russia and wrote over thirty plays. The Morality of Mrs. Dulska (1906); a petty-bourgeois tragic-farce; is probably her best known. Mrs Dulska is a cross between Patricia Routledgesup1;s Hyacinth Bucket and Bertolt Brechts Mother Courage. She is the tyrannical and hilarious landlady of a fine stone tenement building ndash; proud; shrewd and highly preoccupied with appearances. Dulska keeps her purse strings tightly drawn and exploits her tenants in a most unforgiving fashion. To the unhappy woman from the first floor apartment who tries to poison herself by swallowing some match heads; she shows no mercy. To her serving maid; who she effectively prostitutes to her son in order to keep his philandering under her own roof and within her control; she shows no compassion. Her daughters struggle through the torments of adolescence with the facts of life skillfully concealed from them; and her husband; worn down over the years by his power-hungry wife; has barely a word to say to his family. It is her son that Mrs Dulska loves ndash; loves with an unhealthy possessiveness. Her fear that he will leave prompts her to fund the servicing of his every desire. Why is it; then; that he resents her so much? Why is it that he feels compelled to seek revenge? Zapolskarsquo;s uncompromising look at gender construction and class oppression in fin-de-siecle Poland is witty; entertaining and incisive. This is the first published UK translation of this popular Polish classic. It was prepared by Teresa Murjas; a lecturer in Theatre at the University of Reading. In her introduction; Teresa discusses how the translation and first UK production; which she directed; were developed. She introduces Zapolskas work in its historical contexts; provides the reader with relevant biographical information and considers the plays performance history up to the present day. She draws these strands together into a narrative of deportation; exile and emigration.