A scene from African Tales
Dutch audiences are presented with the most recent production by Krzysztof Warlikowski. The Polish director presents his twelveth interpretation of a Shakesperian play in Amsterdam
The play entitled African Tales After Shakespeare is, as usual in Warlikowski’s visions, a collage of numerous texts. The director once again turns to the works by Nobel laureate J.M. Coetzee while also drawing on the monologues from the Canadian-Libian author, Wajdi Mouawad, who wrote the great theatre text Burn. Yet, African Tales is first and foremost a return to the universe of Shakespeare, with whom Krzysztof Warlikowski could be said to have began his career.
The first Shakesperian production that the Polish artist staged was the 1994 Merchant of Venice, produced by the Wilhelm Horzyca Theatre in Toruń. The figure of Shylock from this early performance now returns and gains new life on the stage of African Tales. Following The Merchant of Venice, Warlikowski frequently directed other works by the Stratford playwright: A Winter’s Tale was staged in Poznań in 1997, the Taming of a Shrew was produced in Warsaw’s Dramatyczny Theatre in 1998. Warlikowski also directed Hamlet – the first staging he made of this play took place in 1997 at the School of Drama Beit Zvi in Tel Aviv, and he also directed the piece two years later with the Warsaw-based Teatr Rozmaitości. The Warsaw performance broke with the potent political aspect of the play, and the figure of Hamlet, impersonated in the production by Jacek Poniedziałek, shocked audiences with the posed questions on identity and its sexual aspects.
Warlikowski made his breakthrough performance in 2003 with The Tempest, which was also staged at Teatr Rozmaitości. In his approach to directing the play, Warlikowski claimed to have maintained a reference to the Jedwabne incident. This infamous moment in Polish history had the dwellers of Jedwabne turn against their neighbours of Jewish nationality and burn them alive in the one the town’s barns. With much controversy around the trial, a renewed investigation of the case concluded in 2003, and the Polish Institute of National Remembrance stated the crime was committed by Polish inhabitants of the town, with the complicity of Nazi German Ordnungspolizei. Through staging The Tempest, Warlikowski addressed the tension between freedom and the possiblity of an understanding in contemporary chaos, as well as the issue of forgiveness. It was also on this occasion that the director stated: "My master of the craft is Shakespeare. I value his uncompromising stance and his desire to name the whole of the world, instead of mere fragments of reality" (Notatnik Teatralny journal 2003, nr 28-29)
In African Tales Warlikowski draws on his master Shakespeare for the twelveth time. The main role which is performed by Adam Ferency impersonates three Shakespearian giants: Kind Lear, Shylock and Othello. Each of these characters is, according to Warlikowski, a embodiment of alienation – be it through the figure of an old man, a Jew, or an African. The production shows how close the troubles of man are to the demise and pain of those who have become immortal through the history of theatre. From the burden of race, legacy, social position and difficult choices, each of the three is shunned from society. Shakespeare depicted these states through a tragic prism of history’s titans acting in circumstances of tale and myth. Coetzee, through his telling of the apartheid reality, describes his characters only through categories of existence. Around the three fallen heroes - Othello, Lear and Shylock - Warlikowski builds a new story. And at the core of these stories is Warlikowski's impression of a new and a dazzling drama, a biography of an outcast and weak man. A Belgian review of previous stagings of the play for Cobra.be stated:
There are so many beautiful passages, and so many moments where a whole new light is cast on the texts of Shakespeare, that the show is an absolute must (...) For the actors nothing but praise.
The production has engaged many of Krzysztof Warlikowski's Nowy Teatr colleagues, including Małgorzata Szczęśniak – costumes and stage design, Paweł Mykietyn – music, Piotr Gruszczyński – dramaturgy, and Felice Ross – light design.
Cast: Stanisława Celińska, Ewa Dałkowska, Małgorzata Hajewska-Krzysztofik, Maja Ostaszewska, Magdalena Popławska, Adam Ferency, Wojciech Kalarus, Marek Kalita, Zygmunt Malanowicz, Piotr Polak, Jacek Poniedziałek.
African Tales After Shakespeare is a co-production of the Nowy Teatr and Theatre de la Place (Liège, Belgium) and Prospero. The visit of the play is sponsored by the Polish Ministry of Culture and the Municipality of Warsaw.
African Tales After Shakespeare event details
18th and 19th of September, 2012, 6 p.m.
Stadsschouwburg Amsterdam
The performance is performed in Polish with Dutch surtitles.
The duration is 5 hours and 10 minutes, including two intermissions.
Editor: SRS
Source: press release, Nowy Teatr, Stadsschouwburg Amsterdam, Cobra.be