Mrs.Margaret Pageler
President of Seattle City Council.

Re: ACT Theatre. "Polish Joke" by David Ives.

Dear Mrs.Pageler.

The Polish community and I, are highly concerned about the event which is taking place in the ACT Theatre in Seattle titled "Polish Joke" by David Ives.

The lack of sensitivity to this controversial matter by the Theatre group is appalling.Ms. Susan Trapnell, Director of Seattle Art Commission, saw this play, did not see anything wrong with it, and refused to intervene. Her acceptance of this play is, indeed, very peculiar.

All attempts to obtain the text of the play from the Theatre have been, to date, unsuccessful. The response by Ms. Trapnell to the request for a copy of the text that: "...this play is meant to see not read", is incomprehensible. Opinions of other parties, not necessarily of Polish origin, are overwhelmingly in opposition to that of Ms. Trapnell.
Because of the repeated refusal by persons connected to ACT Theatre to respond to this very reasonable request, I am still not acquainted with the text.
However, the highly offensive content of the Theatre's Internet home page regarding "Polish Joke", is still available world wide. It sufficiently portrays the real meaning and purpose of this play despite rhetorics to the contrary.

"Who ever thought that being Polish was part of the human condition? Young Jasiu doesn't want to be Polish all his life, but he finds that he cannot escape his destiny. On his hilarious journey, Jasiu will try anything and everything to escape the curse of his Polish ancestry."

The above publicity text was available on the Theatre's home page for a relatively long time and was changed on July 8th after protests. No words of public explanation, apology or acknowledgement of the controversy it has stirred were issued by the Theatre.

"[...]JASIU: OK
ROMAN: Are you ready?
JASIU: I'm ready
ROMAN: All Polish jokes ... are true.[...]"
"[...]"To be Jewish is an art. To be Irish is a social skill. But to be Polish, Jasiu -- dat is a destiny,"
Roman tells his nephew. "And can you escape dis destiny? Can you flee da Polish gong dat says life has no purpose?" "Maybe," Uncle Roman muses later, "being Polish is da human condition itself. And if you are human -- how do you escape the human condition?
"[...]"

As of today, the above text still exist on the home page.

The play "Polish Joke", advertised in the manner quoted above, will not draw any decent persons of any ethnic background, but will exploit those of lower minds looking for a cheap sensation.

I will appreciate if you would be so kind as to express your opinion about this unpleasant matter.

Sincerely,

Wojciech Wlazlinski
Polonianet Publishing Co.
Chicago.