Jan Klata Jan Klata

L’Affaire Danton

Since H for Hamlet, which dealt with the Solidarnosc movement, Jan Klata has been combining repertoire theater, rock’n roll aesthetics and a documentary approach to draw a sharp criticism of contemporary Poland. He renews this confrontation with history in Transfer! and L’Affaire Danton.
The former takes up the Yalta summit in 1945, confronting the meeting of Churchill, Roosevelt and Stalin with events taking place in a town affected by the decisions taken, Wroclaw. While the three statesmen preside over Europe’s fate, a choir composed of survivors of these events voices some of the tragedies which ensued.
Jan Klata stages Stanislawa Przybyszewska’s play Danton, after Andrej Wajda’s famous adaptation to film. The French Revolution is presented as a burlesque cabaret, evoking B-rated movies, rock operas and bourgeois comedies. The struggle between Danton and Robespierre resembles urban gang war more than 18th century France.