According to Paweł Soszyński, Wrocław’s Tempest is more Shakespearean than its classical productions. He wrote on dwutygodnik.com that:
The Tempest seems to have no weaknesses. The way in which everything works together, makes the ease of the performance, the accumulation of gags, and the cabaret impetus stop half-way, entering an oddly exalted space – laughter sounds unreal, strangely stretched in time, accompanied by black, panicked echoes. And it is unknown until the very end whether this is a symptom of joy or fear. Because it is easy to get paranoid (...) Garbaczewski and Cecko show The Tempest in the Land of mushrooms by wiping out forms and conventions – this is where the load is released, it is from there that the lightning filters in, running through a LED wire positioned on the stage next to giant toadstools.
The Tempest has also been complimented by Witold Mrozek, who wrote that the play is thrilling, brilliant, and seductive with its wit, trance rhythm and image. Gazeta Wyborcza’s reviewer has sensed that the artists’ play with the shameless theatricality and the psychedelic dimension of the text. 'It extracts from Shakespeare’s last play that which is strange, disturbing and hilarious. At times the performance falls into sleepy monotony – only to later confront the dormant awareness with new stimuli, up until the unnaturally bright, overly theatrical ending', adds Mrozek.
Along Ewa Skibińska in the role of Prospera, the play also stars Anna Ilczuk, Halina Rasiakówna, Wojciech Ziemiański, Małgorzata Gorol, Paweł Smagała, Andrzej Szeremeta, Marcin Pempuś, Cezary Łukaszewicz, Rafał Kronenberger, Andrzej Kłak and Adam Cywka.
The Tempest, William Shakespeare, directed by Krzysztof Garbaczewski. Set design: Aleksandra Wasilkowska, music: Jan Duszyński, lights: Robert Mleczko. Premiere: 7th February in the Polish Theatre, Jerzy Grzegorzewski stage in Wrocław.
Sources: Polityka, dwytugodnik.com, Gazeta Wyborcza, Polish Theatre in Wrocław, www.wroclaw.pl, ed. AL, transl. Bozhana Nikolova