Ivona, Princess of Burgundy

Ivona, Princess of Burgundy is a 1936 play by Witold Gombrowicz, one of Poland’s most iconoclastic and revered writers. Living an itinerant life across continents, his exile from Poland, both physical and literary, informs and generates his work, which spans from novellas to diaries to plays.

Ivona is a tale of form, otherness, and violence: it is the story of a prince who one day, on the prowl for pretty women with his pals, comes across a repugnant young girl, Ivona. His repulsion is so strong that he decides to marry her. Introduced to the court, Ivona becomes a “decomposing agent,” in the words of the playwright: she exposes to all the members of the court their own deepest vices and self-hatred.