Artists Unite Issue

What could be more apropos for the era of warrantless wiretapping and imprisonment of suspected enemy combatants than “The Files,” a new play at 59E59 Theater? The play from Theatre of the Eighth Day is a part of the festival Made in Poland running through the end of November and takes the extraordinary form of a reading of the secret police files kept on the theater company during the 1970s. The Polish sense of the absurd comes through strongly here and makes what could be a sad recollection of repression into a humorous look at how ridiculous overzealous political policy can seem in the bright light of artistic interpretation.

The reading of the files is punctuated by archival footage of the episodes described in some of the readings, plus a reenactment of several of the scenes from referenced repertoire. The cast members’ fantastic delivery is perfectly timed, despite their own limitations in English (which don’t show here). Theatre of the Eighth Day (named for the biblical reference: on the eighth day, God created theater!) is a Polish company from Posnan known for uncompromising social commentary and a tight-knit personal interaction. The play includes some very funny “reports” about drunkedness and anti-communist stances and sums up with one spy’s assessment that the company should be infiltrated by party-friendly members, but they would most likely be won over into the company’s worldview.