Hamlet i Hamlet 1914. Rekonesans
Hamlet and Hamlet 1914. A Reconnaissance

Author(s): Jan Michalik
Subject(s): Theatre, Dance, Performing Arts, Cultural history, Theoretical Linguistics, Applied Linguistics, Studies of Literature, Philology, Theory of Literature, British Literature
Published by: Wydawnictwa Uniwersytetu Warszawskiego
Keywords: Hamlet; Tadeusz Pawlikowski; Cracow; Karol Adwentowicz; Shakespeare
Summary/Abstract: This article was inspired by a handwritten outline of the “screenplay” for a largely forgotten 1914 production of Hamlet in Kraków; drafted by Tadeusz Pawlikowski, widely regarded as the greatest director and theatre principal of late 19th- and early 20th-century Poland. The article opens with a description of the manuscript, a hitherto unknown document which preserves traces of the creative effort leading to the production’s premiere. The first section pieces together evidence from the manuscript with details gleaned from contemporary reviews to reconstruct the structure of the production (which involved over a dozen separate scenes), and the structure of the stage-space which used elements of a 1909 (1912) Max Rheinhard production at the Deutsches Theater in Berlin. The second section of the article argues that the production was a turning point in the critical appreciation of Karol Adwentowicz’s performance as Hamlet, more than five years after the great modernist actor added the character to his repertoire. The article is intended as a sort of reconnaissance mission to encourage further scholarly attention to what was arguably one of the most interesting theatrical productions of Hamlet in Poland.

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