Job

Job was written by Karol Wojtyla during the Nazi occupation of Poland. Wojtyla, who would go on to world renown as Pope John Paul II, was a seminary student and member of the underground Rhapsodic Theatre company when he wrote Job. As part of the company, Wojtyla wrote and performed plays in secret to keep Polish literary, religious and cultural traditions alive during the occupation.

Job uses the Biblical story as metaphor for the sufferings of the Polish people. Set in Warsaw during the Uprising of 1944 — the grim 63-day struggle that ended with the German Army razing the Capital City to the ground — the story unfolds as the Polish Home Army enters a ruined church after curfew to stage an underground production of Wojtyla’s play. They risk their lives to perform this play as both a ‘prayer and a protest’ to their five years of occupation. The play-within-the-play is intended to give the audience members a window into history – a glimpse of what the original productions may have been like.

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