Kazimierz Dejmek

Born May 17, 1924, in Kovel, present-day Volyn’ Oblast, Ukrainian SSR. Polish director and actor.

Dejmek made his debut as an actor in 1947. From 1947 to 1961, he organized and headed the Nowy Teatr in Łódź, where he staged Káňa’s The Brigade of the Metal-grinder Karhan (1949), Ostrovskii’s The Storm (1952), Mayakovskii’s The Bathhouse (1954), Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar (1960), and the mystery play History of the Glorious Resurrection of the Lord (1961) by Mikołaj of Wilkowieck.

From 1962 to 1968, Dejmek was head and artistic director of the National Theater in Warsaw. Among his important presentations in the theater was Jasieński’s Tale of Jakub Szela (1962), which organically combined the comic traditions of the folk theater with revolutionary propaganda theater. The productions of Słowacki’s Kordian (1965) and Hochhuth’s The Deputy (1966) were characterized by publicistic overtones and a concern with topical issues.

In 1969 at the Atheneum Theater in Warsaw, Dejmek staged A. P. Chekhov’s Uncle Vanya, creating a play of great dramatic force. Dejmek, a student of L. Schiller, is developing the principles of a theater that is monumental in form and permeated with social content.