Olga Smiechowicz

Polish Theatre after the Fall of Communism Olga Smiechowicz

In international theatre studies, there has been a dearth of studies on Polish contemporary theatre. This book investigates how Polish theatre has changed since 1989 and the fall of Communism. It introduces the most prominent Polish theatre directors, namely Krystian Lupa and his two extremely talented students Krzysztof Warlikowski and Jan Klata. All three of them represent three absolutely different types of aesthetics and ways of thinking about theatre: Krystian Lupa mostly concentrates on Austrian and Russian literature. Krzysztof Warlikowski's theatre is based on stage versions of William Shakespeare or Ancient authors. Jan Klata focuses his attention on Polish history and current social problems. This book highlights the creativity of Polish contemporary theatre, and shows how different from most theatre traditions in other European countries it is.