Telewizja Polska (Polish TV) is celebrating its 70th anniversary this year. The date of its founding is 25 October 1952, when Poland's first post-war television programme was broadcast: at 7 p.m., a mere half-hour montage of artistic forms was transmitted from the Institute of Communications, which was received on... 24 'Leningrad' receivers standing in clubs and common rooms. In this first music and dance programme, viewers saw artists such as Witold Gruca, Jan Mrozinski and Marta Nowosad. At that time, an antenna was placed on the roof of Warsaw's Prudential building, making the broadcast possible.

Before there were massively watched sports games on television, theatre was present. Later that autumn, viewers were presented with an excerpt from Bolesław Prus's "Lalka" (The Doll), with Nina Andrycz playing the role of Izabela Łęcka. The performance was broadcast straight from the Polish Theatre in Warsaw. The first full-length Television Theatre production - "Window in the Forest" by two Soviet authors Leonid Rachmanov and Eugeniusz Ryss, directed by Józef Słotwiński - was broadcast on 6 November 1953, in the second year of Polish Television.

SIGN UP TO OUR PAGE From its inception, television productions were a significant part of the programme and outstanding artists were offered work at the Television Theatre. One of the first to do so was Jan Marcin Szancer, who not only created the sets for the shows and directed, but was also the artistic director of TT. The Television Theatre's repertoire was overseen by a group of recognised artists such as Konrad Swinarski, Władysław Sheybal and Adam Hanuszkiewicz, as well as graduates of the Łódź Film School: Stanisław Loth, Janusz Kubik or Wojciech Siciński.

At first, performances were recorded in a studio on Ratuszowa Street, then TT moved to Powstańców Warszawy Square, where it took over a two-room studio. At that time, performances were played in one room, while decorations were changed in the other. The Television Theatre did not start working in the studio at Woronicza Street until 1969. After the so-called "The Thaw", a repertoire consisting of contemporary dramatic texts, often foreign - including those by Jean-Paul Sartre, Bertold Brecht or Jean Anouilh - became very important.

Actors whispered to the cameras

In 1957 Adam Hanuszkiewicz became the first director of TT, who not only chose interesting Polish and foreign repertoire, but also changed the way the artist thought about working with the camera. Hanuszkiewicz had already started working in television with a large stage record. As an actor he appeared on many Polish stages - in Rzeszów, Jelenia Góra, Krakow, Warsaw's Rozmaitości Theatre or in Poznań, while later he directed at the Polish Theatre in Poznań and the Powszechny Theatre in Warsaw. He worked with Polish Television from the mid 1950s. He staged, among others, "The Golden Fox" by Jerzy Andrzejewski, "The Green Goose Theatre" by Konstanty Ildefons Gałczyński or "The Great Inquisitor" by Fyodor Dostoyevsky.

When working with the camera, Hanuszkiewicz emphasised acting - he used a lot of close-ups, including looking into the eye of the camera (by the way, in the still poor technology, the general set was out of focus and the image vibrated). He was also one of the first to create an intimate atmosphere for performances, and he taught his actors, accustomed to an intimate atmosphere, to whisper to the camera.

In 1958, he turned to the play " Apollo of Bellac" by Jean Giraudoux, a French playwright who was no stranger to him. At the Old Theatre in Krakow, he played the title character in his 'Amphitron 38', directed by Bohdan Korzeniewski.

The origins of 'Apollo of Bellac' are interesting. Legend has it that the drama was invented one night in 1942 as a protest against the horrors of war. The play was premiered on stage on 16 June 1942 at the Municipal Theatre in Rio de Janeiro. In France, it was first performed after the war - on 19 April 1947 at the Théâtre de l'Athénée in Paris, directed by Louis Jouvet, a great French promoter of the work of Jean Girodoux. Interestingly, the play has still not been published in Poland. It has survived in the form of a script translated by Maria Serkowska and Karol Hubert Rostworowski. The Bellac of the title is the French province where Giraudoux was born, and thus perhaps the land of happiness and fulfilled dreams.

The story told in the drama 'Apollo of Bellac' is simple. A young girl, Agnes, arrives at the Office of Great and Small Inventions in search of work. There she meets a man - Apollo - who advises her to compliment the men she meets and she will make it all the way to the top, to the director of the institution. Agnes takes the advice, tells the men she meets that they are beautiful and, after a short time, the director of the Office of Great and Small Inventions himself wishes to marry her. Agnes' compliments transform the men, who begin to search for this beauty in themselves.

In the grey, gloomy reality of communist Poland, this story was a tale of a different, fairy-tale world. In Adam Hanuszkiewicz's production, the symbol of this better world was the Eiffel Tower, appearing in the final shots in the background of close-ups of the main characters' faces (Kalina Jędrusik and Adam Hanuszkiewicz). At the time, Kalina Jędrusik was the Polish reflection of the world's model of a sexy and mysterious woman, her hairstyle and way of moving resembling the French cinema star of the time and symbol of sex appeal Brigitte Bardot. Accompanying her, Adam Hanuszkiewicz was undoubtedly the epitome of the male ideal. Like a hero from another world, he left a longing for a better life, where one can realise one's own dreams and become a better person.

Longings of entire generations

Jean Giraudoux was not an artist who was often staged, although before "Apollo of Bellac" was on the air in the Television Theatre one could already see his "Ondine" directed by - yes - Adam Hanuszkiewicz and with the title role of Kalina Jędrusik. No wonder, then, that the successful collaboration of the creators led to another, even better remembered production.

According to the magazine "Ekran" No. 13 of 1958, the television premiere of "Apollo of Bellac" took place on 17 March 1958 at 8.30 p.m. The programme was broadcast in Warsaw, Łódź and Katowice. The performance was enthusiastically received, and reviewers were particularly attentive to the acting performances: "The role of the director was played by Jacek Woszczerowicz. He created a performance which will remain in the memory of television viewers for a long time and may serve as an example of the actor's extraordinary skill in dealing with the television camera. (...) Dygatowa [Jędrusik was Stanisław Dygat's wife - editor's note] showed here that she possesses great acting skills in addition to beauty and a very girlish charm, and Hanuszkiewicz made impressive use of acting means which, with a minimum of expression, result in a maximum of effect". (W. Czapińska "Direction Poetics", p.7 "Ekran" 1958 no.13).

The set design for "Apollo of Bellac" was prepared by Xymena Zaniewska, an artist who made her debut as a theatre set designer at the time, and then spent many years creating decorations for Adam Hanuszkiewicz's productions. In "Apollo of Bellac" she used two conventional sets. One depicted the Office of Great and Small Inventions, the other the Eiffel Tower. A certain fairy-tale and conventionality therefore determined the character of this performance from the very beginning. A performance that told the story not so much of the yearnings of the main character, Agnes, but of a whole generation.

What longings does the new production of 'Apollo of Bellac', directed by Anna Wieczur, show? It premiered on 24 October 2022. The role of Agnes was played by Monika Pikuła, and the title character of the Lord of Bellac was played by Przemysław Stippa. Announcing the performance, director Anna Wieczur stressed that in fact we all believe we are beautiful, and we only seek confirmation of this in the eyes of others. It seems, therefore, that despite the passage of eighty years since the text was written, it has not lost its relevance and today opens up new contexts, performed in contemporary set and costume design.

The performance was played 'live', straight from the studio at Woronicza, also reminding us that the practice of recording plays produced in this way was once common in Television Theatre. Many outstanding productions from that era have not survived, but 'Apollo of Bellac' is a glorious exception, as it was one of the first recorded at TT. The performance we can still see today, however, is not the one premiered in 1958 - it was recorded on 10 July 1961, when telerecording technology developed at the end of the 1950s.

On the occasion of the anniversary of Polish Television, we are returning to the first production of TT preserved in its entirety, but showing it in a new realisation. The history of Television Theatre is also the history of technological change. The method of recording is changing, new technologies are being used. Performances are sometimes very close to film. The premiere of the new 'Apollo of Bellac' was also a reflection of the present day: a performance in colour, of course, in HD, but still 'live' - returning to the most important tradition of Television Theatre.

It used to be that on Monday evenings in cities where Television Theatre shows were broadcast, the streets would empty. Today, technology allows us to receive the show later and many viewers watch the performances on TVP's VOD platform. But perhaps it is worthwhile, on the occasion of the 70th anniversary, and since the actors are playing "live" for us again, to revive this beautiful tradition of watching TV theatre premieres together.

– Monika Kolet
-Translated by Tomasz Krzyżanowski

TVP WEEKLY. Editorial team and jornalists

Television Theatre: the play "Apollo of Bellac" by Jean Giraudoux, TVP 1.
Directed by: Anna Wieczur, starring Monika Pikuła and Przemysław Stippa. Set and costume design: Katarzyna Adamczyk. Music: Ignacy Zalewski. Television realisation: Marek Bik