Shakespeare, the Polish Director’s Contemporary
Shakespeare, the Polish Director’s Contemporary

Author(s): Kathleen Cioffi
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: Shakespeare plays; National Audiovisual Institute; Polish Contemporary Shakespeare series; Jan Klata; Krzysztof Warlikowski; Jan Kott
Summary/Abstract: “Shakespeare, the Polish Director’s Contemporary” considers two Polish productions of Shakespeare plays in the National Audiovisual Institute’s “Polish Contemporary Shakespeare” series. The author discusses the Polish tradition of “Shakespeare mania” and then analyzes Jan Klata’s production H. (an adaptation of Hamlet) and Krzysztof Warlikowski’s production Burza. Both directors apply Jan Kott’s idea that Shakespeare can be our contemporary to their productions, but they do so in different ways. The directors’ ability to achieve contemporaneity in their productions depends not only on stylistic directorial choices, but also on the changing nature of contemporary reality itself in the post-1989 era. Klata’s production seems to be almost an illustration of Kott’s discussion of Hamlet in Szkice o Szekspirze, yet at the same time, it has a curiously old-fashioned, Cold War–era feeling. H. enlists Shakespeare in the argument over European Union accession, an argument that was au courant in 2004 when the production was first staged but now seems dated. Warlikowski’s production appears less immediately contemporary in Kott’s sense than H., yet it illustrates Kott’s notion that Burza is “a passionate reckoning with the real world” as it was influenced by the controversy over Jedwabne, an issue that remains resonant to this day.

• Details
• Contents