SOURCE: “Labyrinth of an Obscure Law: Różewicz Stirs Polish TV,” in Performing Arts Journal, Vol. XIII, No. 2, May, 1991, pp. 56–61.

In the following essay, Baniewicz discusses why Różewicz's Do piachu met with such controversy in Poland.

Art is rarely one of the early fruits of revolution. Today Polish artists, who demanded freedom at the Round Table not so long ago, talk chiefly about money. Culture is costly, and new economic order, with its suppression of inflation, has brought recession and growing unemployment, so it can hardly be expected that the government will zealously try to save art rather than health services, housing, or industry. Film production has dropped from a few dozen films annually to merely a few. Movie theatres survive thanks to commercial American productions like Batman, and they are being closed down more and more frequently, unless someone manages to change them into currency exchange...