In 1947 John Steinbeck and Robert Capa went to the Soviet Union. Those two great artist created a unique document about Russians. During the travel they tried to avoid superficial and easy judgments. They also wanted to avoid political issues, however, it was almost impossible as Stalin was omnipresent, his power seemed to be endless but also people seemed to love him and treat him as the biggest authority. Polish people still remember some paradoxes of living in Soviet Union and the reading was for some of us like a journey to the past. However, after that we also had to consider what does freedom mean to us in our present geopolitical situation. We found some similarities between Stalinism and Poland nowadays. I also wanted to show consequences of dispensing all authority into one’s hands.
The reading was organized by Balassi Institute in Warsaw, in cooperation with Polish Center of International Theatre Institute ITI and National Museum in Warsaw.
