Polish · 1869–1907
Wyspiański was a painter, stained-glass designer, furniture maker, typographer, theatre director and playwright who did all of it at once and died at thirty-eight of syphilis. He trained in Kraków under Matejko and in Paris, and came home to make the windows of the Franciscan church, which are still the best thing in the city. He wanted a total theatre in which text, design, music and movement were one work, and designed his own sets and costumes. The Wedding was written in six weeks after he attended the actual wedding of a poet friend to a peasant girl in the village of Bronowice, put the real guests on stage under their own names, and had it performed in Kraków within four months. The audience recognised themselves. Polish theatre has been arguing with the play ever since, and Wajda filmed it in 1973.