Another challenging confrontation with scenarios of oppression was the basis of the acclaimed show Kabaret Warszawski (Warsaw Cabaret). Warlikowski juxtaposed two distant (in terms of time) realities: The Germany of the Weimar Republic, when fascists began to gradually seize power, and New York after September 11. Facing those events, contemporary Warsaw reflects upon itself. Inspired by the film Shortbus and the texts of I'm a Camera, the show portrays a group of artists for whom art is the main purpose of action. But art does not repay itself. On the contrary, it makes those devoted artists feel lost. On the one hand, art allows them to live, on the other, it poisons them with doubts that make life impossible. Warlikowski, while creating a space for therapy and for releasing fears and transgressing taboos, also shows the danger and oppression which are automatically generated within these kinds of enclaves.
The play, with a sensational performance by Magdalena Cielecka and Maciej Stuhr, captivated Polish and foreign reviewers and the European audience, including spectators of the Avignon Festival, which co-produced the staging. - Dazzling, provocative, a classic - these are just some of the comments that could be read in the French press. Les Echos emphasized Warlikowski’s remarkable ability to direct the scenes: "He draws the particular sequences of the performance with immensely moving visual force" - writes the reviewer and, calling the play "Baroque and generous." "This is the genius of Krzysztof Warlikowski: while creating a cabaret he also meditates on love, life and death" - sums up Les Echos.
Kabaret Warszawski was also appreciated at home. It was listed as one of the best works of the season in the annual ranking by the monthly Teatr. Anka Herbut wrote that Kabaret is:
[…] a show about loneliness, and the extension and limitations of freedom. On the one hand, Warlikowski exposes spaces of repressed memories, displaying the mechanisms that govern them. On the other, he is an advocate for freaks pushed away to the margins of sociopolitical discourse. He demands that life, sex, and theatre grant ecstasy and freedom.
Warlikowski returned to international stages in August 2015, presenting The French, a performance based on Marcel Proust’s In Search of Lost Time at the Ruhrtriennale interdisciplinary festival. As dramaturge Piotr Gruszczyński explained in an interview conducted for the Polish Press Agency:
The performance is Warlikowski’s personal insight into Proust’s world. However, as the work is truly monumental, it’s not quite a staging of Proust per se.
The French, based on the famous novel, was complemented by fragments of other works, including Racine’s Phèdre and Fernando Pessoa’s The Ultimatum. Reviews of the performance, many of them including words of praise addressed to the ensemble of Nowy Theatre, were published in the most important German magazines and newspapers. Andreas Wilink wrote for Der Spiegel that The French was a diagnosis of modern Europe, realised with the use of strong, evocative images. The reviewer wrote further that:
The marvellous ensemble creates an erotic aura. The French is a complex, demanding, and fascinating piece.
Its Polish premiere took place in October 2015. It was the first opening of Warlikowski’s performance in the new premises of his theatre, located in the former City Sanitation Department on Madalińskiego Street in Warsaw.
The performance was appreciated at the 8th edition of the Divine Comedy International Theatre Festival in Kraków – Warlikowski received a price for best director, Małgorzata Szczęśniak was awarded for set design, and Mariusz Bonaszewski, who played Charles Swann, got the second prize for best male role. The international jury dubbed Warlikowski as:
[…] a director who, in his hermetic, multilayered depiction of bourgeois society, redefines and broadens the horizons of Marcel Proust’s piece with the masterful use of vision and artistic means.
Witold Mrozek considered the performance a universal, timeless story about emotions:
Warlikowski reads Proust’s work not only as an elegy for Europe, but also as a treatise on loneliness. […] In this world, love exists only in retrospection, perceived or concocted post factum. As long as the relationships last, the characters use them mainly to torture each other – as is the case in the erotic scenes including Swann (Mariusz Bonaszewski) and his former great love, Odetta (the excellent Maja Ostaszewska).
So far The French, apart from the premiere shows in Germany and Poland, has been presented in France, Switzerland, and Georgia.
Parallel to his successes in drama theatre, Warlikowski continued intensive work at prestigious opera houses throughout Europe, where he also flourished. In 2012 he directed the sexually scandalous Lulu by Alban Berg, which was enthusiastically received at La Monnaie in Brussels.