Operetta by Witold Gombrowicz

First published:Operetka, 1966 (English translation, 1971)

First produced: 1969, at the Teatro Stabile, Aquila, Italy

Type of plot: Problem play

Time of work: 1910 and after World War II

Locale: Himalaj Castle

Principal Characters:

• Master Fior, a famous fashion designer
• Prince Himalaj
• Princess Himalaj, his wife
• Count Szarm, their son
• Albertynka, a beautiful girl
• Baron Firulet, Count Szarm’s rival
• Count Hufnagiel, a former valet, now a revolutionary
• Two Thieves, hired by Szarm and Firulet

The Play

The first act of Operetta takes place before World War I, around the year 1910, in a church square near the Castle Himalaj. The protagonist, Count Szarm, son of the prince and princess Himalaj, desires to seduce a young girl named Albertynka. The problem is that he has never been introduced to her. Thus, he searches for a way to start up a “casual” acquaintance with her. He hires a petty thief to steal a medallion from her neck while she is sleeping on a bench. The count then “catches” the thief, retrieves the stolen medallion, and thus has a pretext for an introduction. During her sleep, however, Albertynka feels the hand of the thief, and from this time onward will constantly fall into sleep in order to relive the experience of that touch. The touch was not that of a thief but, rather, that of a lover. Count Szarm’s plans are thus foiled, for Albertynka has come under the spell of someone else. From this time on, she dreams of “nudity,” which is especially unfortunate for the count, as he is ashamed of nudity and loves to dress up. He would like to dress the girl in clothes from the best stores, while she only desires that he undress her.

At this time, Master Fior, a world-renowned fashion designer, arrives. A ball is subsequently arranged at the Castle Himalaj, in connection with a fashion show. Fior, who is to rule the fashion world for the next few years, is unsure what his next famous style will be. Acceding to the advice of Count Koniarz Hufnagiel, Fior decides that all guests at the ball will create and present their own “styles of the future.” All are to cover themselves (and their creations) with large bags, which they are to take off at an appointed moment, uncovering their new clothes. In this way, Fior hopes to get some ideas for his new line. A committee will give out awards to those judged best.

In act 2, the guests arrive in their bags at the Castle Himalaj, where they are greeted by the prince and princess. Court Szarm arrives with the overdressed Albertynka. He is also leading on a leash the thief he had hired in the first act, as he fears the results should that person again touch Albertynka, who had been so moved by the first contact with him. (Albertynka, meanwhile, does not know that he is the man who had touched her.) Baron Firulet, the count’s copycat rival, also arrives at the ball with his own thief on a leash. The sleepy Albertynka becomes the cause of a duel between the rivals, though neither of them is hurt.

The confusion grows in the ballroom. The count and the baron unleash their thieves, who steal everything they can lay their hands on and touch everyone. During the ball, it becomes known that Hufnagiel is neither a count nor a stableboy, as his first name indicates: He is in reality the prince’s former valet, who is now a revolutionary activist. He came to the ball under an assumed name to smuggle in a new, bloody “fashion”—revolution. The lights go out in a general confusion of bodies, masks, and clothes; a revolution bursts forth under Hufnagiel’s leadership. Fior turns on a flashlight and sees that the general has taken his bag off to reveal the uniform of a Nazi officer. The marquise is dressed as a Nazi turnkey in a concentration camp.

In the third act, which takes place after World War II (and the revolution), the transformed characters make their appearance against the background of the ruined castle. Hufnagiel gallops on the back of a professor, chasing after the Fascists. After they have been captured, Fior wishes to place them before a tribunal. Hufnagiel is judge, his “horse” is the procurator, and Fior is the attorney for the defense.

A seemingly magical thunderstorm takes place, after which all are in accord: Szarm and Firulet are chasing butterflies together. After them come two thief-gravediggers, carrying a black coffin. The rivals sadly look for Albertynka, who disappeared after the ball; only her clothes remained. Convinced that she was raped and murdered, they wander the earth searching for her naked body. Meanwhile, each character places in the coffin his own personal sufferings and failures. At the end, when Fior, master of fashion, curses the very existence of clothing and places in the coffin his own holy, common human nudity, Albertynka rises up from the coffin.

Dramatic Devices

As Operetta is a drama that sets in metaphorical opposition images of clothing and nakedness, the most obvious and important dramatic device in the play is that of pretentious “dressing up” versus Albertynka’s desire to be denuded. In the first act, Albertynka’s unconscious desire to be undressed, which dramatizes her authenticity and unpretentious nature, is excited by the touch of Count Szarm’s hireling thief. In stealing her medallion, the thief is indeed “undressing” her for the first time, giving her the subconscious impetus she needs to express her true self. From this time forward, she longs for nudity—that is, unpretentious authenticity.

The other characters of the play, and especially Szarm himself, are stifled by their own particular masks. Ashamed of nakedness, afraid of realizing their own authentic selves, they hide behind the various uniforms they show to the outside world. Perverted as they are as to appearances, they have not lost their reason. Knowing full well that their masks are unauthentic, yet ashamed to strip down to the nakedness of their own true nature, they strive to mask the nakedness of other, authentic personages so as not to be aware of their own falsity. This can be seen in Szarm’s overwhelming desire to dress (indeed, overdress) Albertynka, as well as in his leashing of the thief.

As a matter of course, however, falsity cannot cover up truth for very long. When Szarm and Firulet, in a moment of passion, let loose the thieves from their collars, they “undress” them and allow them to act according to the laws of their own true natures. Chaos breaks loose, and one would think that, with the revolution, the house of cards would come tumbling down, and Albertynka (and truth) would come out triumphant. However, she disappears, and the court is left in the hands of the valet-count-revolutionary Hufnagiel (himself a twice-over devotee of appearances), under whose rule the star of fashion reaches its zenith.

The storm, which arrives at the height of idiotic falsity in the third act, magically transforms the scene into a veritable idyll. This dramatic device symbolizes the eventual triumph of human nature over falsity. Humans cannot sustain their mask for long—it will eventually fall from them, if they do not throw it away first. The great ceremonial denuding with which the play ends symbolizes the resignation of the characters from their masks, which they are physically unable to uphold any longer. When Fior, the master of masks, so to speak, curses fashion and places his own “holy” nakedness in the black coffin, Albertynka arises to assume her rightful place at the top of a rejuvenated, authentic society, as in a mythical resurrection. It is no coincidence that the main proponent of nudity and truth should be a young woman.

Critical Context

It has been remarked (and by Gombrowicz, at that) that Operetta can be seen as a farcical look at humanity’s political nature and the desire to dress up in uniforms and masks which represent something that is quantitatively (though not qualitatively) bigger than the individual self. This idea is certainly present in the play. Operetta, however, is not a political drama. Like all Gombrowicz’s works, it centers on the individual, on the inner soul, provoking the members of the audience to take a hard look at themselves and their own particular masks.

The entirety of Gombrowicz’s literary output centers on the individual. An important writer little understood by his contemporary public, a Polish author living at a great distance from his nation and readership, Gombrowicz had much time and occasion for musing on the solitariness of individual human existence. This philosophical search for the individual’s authentic essence can be found in works which span the entirety of the author’s corpus. In the early short story “Pamiętnik Stefana Czarneckiego” (the diary of Stefan Czarnecki), Gombrowicz explores the problem of individual identity in relation to the masks that national tradition and adolescent experiences force upon one. Both these themes were taken up and developed at greater length; the former in the semi-autobiographical novel Trans-Atlantyk (1953) and the latter in the author’s most famous work, Ferdydurke (1938; English translation, 1961).

Iwona, ksęniczka Burgunda (pr. 1938, pr. 1957, revised pb. 1958; Ivona, Princess of Burgundia, 1969) may be considered a forerunner and sister-play of Operetta. The prince in Ivona, however, is unable to liberate himself from his mask; as noted above, Operetta is uncharacteristically optimistic in its conclusion.

Sources for Further Study

Goldmann, Lucien. “The Theatre of Gombrowicz.” Drama Review 14, no. 3 (1970): 102-112.

Gombrowicz, Witold. Diary, 1961-1966. Edited by Jan Kott. Evanston: Northwestern University Press, 1994.

Junker, Howard. “Sweet Violence.” Newsweek, May 29, 1967, 94.

Przybylska, Krystyna. “The Modern Polish Theater.” Queens Slavic Papers 1 (1973): 68-79.

Taborski, B. “Witold Gombrowicz.” In Crowell’s Handbook of Contemporary Drama. New York: Crowell, 1971.

Ziarek, Eva. Gombrowicz’s Grimaces: Modernism, Gender, Nationality. Albany: New York State University Press, 1998.