Theater, treason and plots

The theater got the idea after two of its employees were listed as collaborators with the secret police in National Archive papers.

Ewa Wójciak, who now heads the theater, says: "There is a lot of garbage in the National Archives, but there are also papers which demonstrate the horror of spying on fellow citizens." She hopes the new work will explore what drives people to spy on each other and the notion of treason.

The play is all the more significant since the new government plans on expanding its verification of citizens' loyalties in the near future, and there are concerns that the archives could be manipulated for political gain. The National Archive official website has already published an essay alleging that the student protests in 1968, during which police officers intervened to beat protesters, were an "inter-Communist party struggle between those who believed themselves to be 'true Marxists' and the Party leaders." Among those listed as "true Marxists" by the National Archives' website is the late Jacek Kuroń, the founder of the independent Committee to Defend the Workers, and a key leader in the Solidarity movement.  Kuroń was jailed by the communist authorities for his activities.

The National Archives website has questioned Kuroń's patriotism on the basis of a report filed by a Communist secret-police operative.