Two outstanding examples of socialist-themed plays are combined in this remarkable volume. The Conspiracy of Feelings by Yuni Olesha (1899-1960) is based on his highly respected short novel Envy about the struggle between the old and new in Soviet society. The play is not a simple adaptation but an onginal work that reconceived the novel. It explores the precarious position of the intelligentsia in the new collective state. Since it did not conform to the tenets of socialist realism, the work was denounced as decacent. Not until the late 1960s was the play published and rehabilitated. The Little Theatre of the Green Goose was written by Konstanty Ildefons Galczynski (1905-53) who was one of Poland's most beloved poets. After World War II, he began work as a playwright, inventing a colourful theatre troupe of performers (animal and human) and contributing a new installment of The Little Theatre of the Green Goose each week to Przekroj, the Cracow literary magazine Intended for reading only, The Green Goose went unperformed in Gatzynski's life and was finally staged in 1955 and gained a permanent place in the theatre, becoming a force for the creation of the new Polish drama that flourished in the 1960s.

Book jacket.