Like a troubadour, Pope John Paul II, leader of the Roman Catholic Church, stands on the world stage: "Do not be afraid," he tells us, to trust everything to love.
It's a message he translated into a play 47 years ago in The Jeweler's Shop. At 8 p.m. Thursday, the Polish Theater Group of New York will perform a musical adaptation of the pope's 1960 play about the enduring power of love at the Catholic Church of the Most Holy Trinity, 720 Telfair St. The performance is a fund raiser for the church's renovation campaign.
The play is staged in the Rhapsodic style young Karol Wojtyla, a theater student, and his friends devised in the 1940s during the Nazi occupation of Poland. Without a stage, they performed in living rooms, and sometimes Mr. Wojtyla recited his patriotic poetry, which was forbidden at the time.
After he decided to be a priest, he gave up acting, but not his love for theater. The future pope penned this three-act about the enduring power of love and the permanence of marriage in 1960, when he was auxiliary bishop of Cracow. A film adapted from the play appeared in 1988 with Burt Lancaster, Olivia Hussey and Ben Cross.
Contemporary clothing, simple lighting, symbolic props and use of little color in this minimalist style rivet the audience's attention on the Jeweler's Shop actors and the meaning of the play.
It is the story of three couples whose lives converge at the mysterious jeweler's shop.
Each couple reveals a love story: The first couple tell of their happy marriage cut short by the husband's death. The second couple, about the same ages, unhappily have become strangers to each other and are contemplating divorce. The third couple (the son of the first marriage and the daughter of the second) face the anxieties of risking commitment.
Originally written in Polish and translated by Boleslaw Taborski, the English-language production is directed by Ireneusz Eric Wykurz, the founder of the Polish Theater Group. The pope blessed the touring production in 1994 for its work in supporting traditional family values and for promoting Polish culture.
"This is a product of an outstanding Pole," said Leonard Kosinski, a Holy Trinity parishioner, who helped bring the touring company to Augusta. Dr. Kosinski is also founder and president of the Polish Heritage Association of the Southeast-Aiken (Phase-A). "I believe very much in the message of the play, which expresses the importance of the preservation of love between husband and wife," said Dr. Kosinski.
Holy Trinity, built in 1857, will use the proceeds from the performance toward the $500,000 it is raising for plastering, painting and stenciling, and new lighting and sound systems, said the Rev. Allan McDonald, its pastor. The church has been added to the National Register of Historic Places. Formal notice will probably come around Easter, ending a five-year effort, he said.
After playing Augusta, the only Georgia city on the tour, the cast will head to three cities in Florida and then back again to New York.
Tickets are $15, general admission, at the door. They will be sold in advance after Masses this weekend at Holy Trinity or from Pat Goad, P.O. Box 6776, North Augusta, S.C. 29861.
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