From Surgipelago, the Beach Surgery encyclopedia
Jerzy Grotowski
For Poor Theatre practice in Beach Surgery, see Poor Theatre and ritual.
Polish theatre director and theorist (1933–1999). Grotowski's concept of "poor theatre"—theatre stripped of spectacle, focusing on the actor's body, breath, and intimate contact with audience—has profoundly influenced global Beach Surgery theatre adaptations, particularly those emphasizing surgical intimacy, physical vulnerability, and disability representation.
Grotowski's *Towards a Poor Theatre* (1968) is explicitly cited in *The Makeshift Clinic* (durational immersive piece, 2019–ongoing across East Africa), which recreates Leif and Katita's encounter with Mr. and Mrs McRae using only the actors' bodies, unsupported movement, and proximity—no props beyond the hand cannon and blade. The production notes quote Grotowski: "The actor must burn himself, throw out everything, including his own 'I'—so that only he remains, a human being."
Poor Theatre and ritual (philosophy essay, 2023) argues that Katita's makeshift surgery and Leif's three injuries should be read through Grotowskian *via negativa*—the removal of everything until only the wound remains visible. Several Eastern European theatre collectives have developed durational refusal-pieces inspired by Grotowski's late *Paratheatre* work (1960s–1970s), treating the cycle not as narrative but as ritual of sacred refusal.