język polskijęzyk angielski

Merlin

Female cast
Male cast
Original language of the play
Polish premiere
Polish premiere: July 15, 1993, Wierszalin Theater in Supraśl, directed by Piotr Tomaszuk; and, among others, on December 16, 2003 under the title “Merlin. Inna historia” (Merlin. A Different Story), National Theater in Warsaw, directed by Ondrej Spišák
Translations
ADiT has translations into other languages available
Original title
Merlin

In this daring in form drama, Słobodzianek rewrites the myths of King Arthur, the Knights of the Round Table, and the quest for the Holy Grail. Through this reinterpretation, he reflects on the nature of evil, the relationship between religion and state, and the failures of utopian political projects.
In the play, the author foregoes dialogue in favor of third-person narration. The story of Merlin planning to build a perfect kingdom in a ruined, broken Britain is presented to the audience by an amateur theater group, with the actors playing mythical characters on stage. As Joanna Chojka notes in her dissertation, “this structure of expression fuels the interplay between a person, a persona, and a role, allowing the characters to show or even comment on their actions”. Słobodzianek's approach also allows the author in Merlin to skillfully use ambiguities, where sanctity mixes with blasphemy, and the divine plan of salvation turns out to be the source of evil.

The structure of the play, organized into seven parts, corresponds to the structure of the (seemingly intentionally desecrated) Latin liturgy, including events and motifs that are repeated seven times. Thus, the seven knights, whose coats of arms symbolically correspond to the seven deadly sins, pledge their allegiance to the king and the "holy cause" one by one, the story of their wandering during the quest for the Holy Grail and their fight against the monster to defend a maiden is repeated seven times, and seven times, despite being victorious, they leave with a sense of defeat and abandon their mission. However, upon their return to the castle, each of the knights claims to have kept his oath, except Lancelot, who admits his failure in not finding the Grail. The knights feast, replacing the sacred goblet with a secular cup filled with wine. As Chojka states, “iniquity, wickedness and treachery prevail in the clash with knightly honor”. That same night, Lancelot confesses his love to the queen and spends the night in her chamber. The infidelity leads to another round of duels (this time between the members of the court) described the same way as was the quest, with a language repetition scheme. Eventually, all the characters of the "other story" presented by the actor-narrators die, and with them the image of the perfect kingdom falls.

This disaster, however, escapes the attention of the titular Merlin, who, blinded by the power of the utopian dream, naively believed the assurances of his beloved Viviana, that "Britain is happy." In other words, Słobodzianek seems to argue that sooner or later ideology always becomes concerned only with its own perfection, ignoring reality, which usually deviates far from the initial plans. After all, Merlin is, as mentioned at the beginning of the play, a cautionary tale: both against the false promise of salvation brought by utopian projects, and against – certainly a more contemporary phenomenon today – the mixing of political and religious doctrine. It was, after all, inspiration of a religious nature that pushed Merlin to outline his plan, and the unsuccessful search for relics revealed not only the far-from-sacred nature of the “knights in a holy cause” but also led to the kingdom's eventual downfall as a consequence.