The Water Hen at the Royal Scottish Academy

In spring 1969, Richard Demarco, the gallery director, met Tadeusz Kantor, the theatre director, at his home in Krakow. Demarco was fascinated by this most radical avant-gardist, a Polish Jew who had run an underground theatre under the noses of the German occupiers in the Second World War. Demarco was determined to show his work at the Edinburgh Festival.

Kantor and his group of actors, Cricot 2, began a run of Stanisław Ignacy Witkiewicz’s play Kurka Wodna (The Water Hen) in 1972. The venue was a disused plumber’s workshop, known as The Poorhouse, in Edinburgh’s Forrest Hill.

Kantor’s interpretation of the text might be termed a “loose adaptation”. Witkiewicz described the play as a “spherical tragedy” suggesting that humanity is somehow doomed to repeat its mistakes. The characters express doubt about the effect they can have upon their own lives.

The play challenges theatrical conventions, such as a linear narrative. Kantor’s interpretation introduced important dramaturgical innovation, rupturing long-held notions around the definition of what constitutes theatre. Kantor derided the idea that life and art were divided, and the corollary, that the audience, and director, should be separated from the drama.

The performances of The Water Hen were a layered, sometimes cacophonous, mixture of spoken word and movement, where different parts of the action were performed simultaneously. Kantor did away with a conventional stage (another barrier) and brought the action into the midst of the audience, which, at times, is urged to move freely through the actors and their numerous props.

Over the years Demarco built up a remarkable archive, part of which was sold to the National Galleries of Scotland. It was here that researchers from the University of Dundee discovered a forgotten film of the premiere of The Water Hen.

Fully aware of the historic importance of Kantor’s achievements, Demarco had the prescience to commission the film, now being shown publicly for the first time in 40 years, in the centenary of Kantor’s birth. The screening is accompanied by films of short performance works by six artists from Scotland and Poland, which pay homage to Kantor and his legacy.

To September 5. Details: royalscottishacademy.org