Performances in one of the rooms of Antoni Sułkowski’s castle in Rydzyna near Leszno started shortly after 1765. In 1770 and 1771, master bricklayer Heymrath  built on the orangery building in the park, adding a right wing that housed a theatre (48 ells long, 28 ells wide and 9 ells high, i.e. 29 by 17 by 6 metres). The walls of the room were divided by pilasters and decorated with illusionist paintings by Józef Feliks Seyfried, depicting, among other images, boxes with spectators leaning out of them (like it was later in the Orangery Theatre in Warsaw). Seyfried was also the decorator of the theatre. The company, directed by a captain of the Polish army, Hoese, consisted of courtiers and officials, certainly also members of the host’s family. It performed in Polish as well as in German. The repertoire included mainly comedies and tragedies, and less frequently also operas. Among them were two adaptations of Shakespeare’s plays: Richard III by Christian Felix Weisse, and  Ländliche Hochzeitsfest (Wedding in the Countryside) by Joseph Pauersbach based on A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Rydzyna also sometimes hosted professional German companies. The death of the duke in 1786 put an end to the activity of the theatre, and about four years later Antoni’s (August’s brother) widow, applied to the authorities in Poznań for permission to knock down the dilapidated building.[1]

[1] Warszawski teatr Sułkowskich. Dokumenty z lat 1774–1785, ed. Barbara Król, Wrocław 1957.

Literature:

1. Kajzer L., Salm J., Kołodziejski S., Leksykon zamków w Polsce, Arkady 2001.
2. Król-Kaczorowska B., Teatr dawnej Polski. Budynki, dekoracje, kostiumy, Warszawa 1971.
3. Moliński Z., Zamek w Rydzynie, 1997.
4. Prejbisz L., Zamek i Klucz Rydzyński, Rydzyna 1938.
5. Warszawski teatr Sułkowskich. Dokumenty z lat 1774-1785, ed. B. Król, Wrocław 1957.

Autor: Jarosław Komorowski