"ich bin ein polnischer Edelmann pur sang," wrote Nietzsche of himself in Ecce Homo, "dem auch nicht ein Tropfen schlechtes Blut beigemischt ist, am wenigsten deutsches." Insofar as the grand finale of the bilingual comedy "Night," may well aim to show Poles and Germans just how "beigemischt" their blood is, it tantalizes us. However, insofar as the play seems to take the easy way out by failing to rise above the most simple of stereotypes towards the hardness of reality, it may well fail. In either case, "Night," directed by Mikolaj Grabowski and performed in the "Stary Teatr" in Krakow sounds like it's worth seeing.

The approach of critics in Poland toward "Night" is evocative of the very problematic that the play itself tries to raise. Grabowski directs a comedy that attempts to confront the bad blood that runs between Poland and Germany, particularly visible in the stereotypes both nations have of one another. Just as those stereotypes either over-idolize or under-appreciate the complexity of their target, so it seems critics in Poland either fawn over the play or view it as an outright candidate for the equivalent to America's razzies award. For the enthusiasts, Grabowski's "Night" helps them forget the very core of the problem - the reality of past history, and focus on the somewhat sentimental, albeit pleasing prospect of a shared humanity. That Grabowski's is a comedy seems merely to reinforce the suspicion that the play escapes the core of the Polish-German problem to delight in an over-simplified resolution. That resolution apparently takes the form of a German Jeweller who shoots a