Kaddish: Pages on Tadeusz Kantor

Tadeusz Kantor (1915-90) was renowned for his revolutionary theater performances in both his native Poland and abroad. Despite nominally being a Catholic, Kantor had a unique relationship with Jewish culture and incorporated many elements of Jewish theater into his works. In Kaddish, Jan Kott, an equally important figure in twentieth-century theater criticism, presents one of the most poignant descriptions of what might be called `the experience of Kantor.` At the core of the book is a fundamental philosophical question: What can save the memory of Kantor`s `Theatre of Death`-the Image, or the Word/Logos? Kott`s biblical answer in Kaddish is that Kantor`s theatre can be saved in its essence only by the Word, the Logos. This slim volume, Kott`s final work, is a distilled meditation that casts light on how two of the most prominent figures in Western theater reflected on the philosophy of the stage.