A photograph of Tadeusz Kantor’s family taken in 1912 used as a prop in the production of “Today Is My Birthday”

In his last performance of “Today Is My Birthday” (1990), Tadeusz Kantor reconstructed a photograph of his ‘departed loved ones’, taken in the presbytery in Wielopole Skrzyńskie, where he was born on 6th April 1915. He placed the “Family Photograph” on stage, and in it the figure of his mother, father and priest Śmietana raising glasses in a toast to the artist turning seventy-five. The framed photograph was a prop in the performance, placed on the artist’s Little Table. He described a Xerox copy of the family picture taken in 1912: “(…) by the table father and mother father is passing a glass mother is standing facing father mother’s hand is touching a leaf-shaped tray (…) a white tasseled tablecloth on the table silverware (…) a tiled stove at the back, heart-shaped leaves in flowerpots (…) a lamp with a decorative umbrella next to father’s head a head stiffly sticking from a rubber collar (…)”.