Gombrowicz: między lalką a ukrytym demonem

In this paper I shall present the analysis and interpretation of the performance of Iwona księżniczka Burgunda by Witold Gombrowicz. The play was staged in The Opole Theatre of Puppet and Actor. I argue that use of puppets in this performance is the interesting method of emphasis of the problem of the Form, conventions and habits. Each character is built of two parts: a puppet expressing social role played by human, and an actor representing real face of each of a character concealed behind the veil of puppet in daily life. Iwona, who brings about social decomposition of the court, is shown by a stage-manager, Marián Pecko, as a formless demon destroying every form and principle, including the moral one. I interpret the performance in terms of liminal rituals described by anthropologist Victor Turner. This interpretation has at least two reasons: first, words of Gombrowicz himself who defined his works as an expression of some kind of rituals; second, use puppets which have always had a mythical and religious meaning..