Hamlet
based on Study on Hamletby Stanisław Wyspiański
- Author: William Shakespeare / Stanisław Wyspiański
- Translation: Stanisław Barańczak
- Scenario: Piotr Augustyniak, Bartosz Szydłowski
- Direction: Bartosz Szydłowski
- Stage Design and Costumes: Małgorzata Szydłowska
- Script: Piotr Augustyniak
- Music: Dominik Strycharski
- Choreography: Dominika Knapik
- Lighting direction: Marcin Chlanda
- Multimedia: Dawid Kozłowski
- Stage manager: Anna Wójcicka
- Producer: Bartosz Jelonek
- The Juliusz Słowacki Theatre in Krakow - The Grand Stage
- Premiere: 08.12.2019
‘In Poland the mystery of Hamlet is the following: what in Poland is there to think about’.
These are Wyspiański's words from his Study on Hamlet, written feverishly in several days – a work that constitutes a source of inspiration for many Polish directors. Wyspiański contained therein his fascination with the phenomenon of theatre, his love for the brilliant text, and his great desire to read it so profoundly as to shake the conscience of his compatriots.
Director Bartosz Szydłowski reaches for Hamlet and reads Shakespeare's most famous drama through
the world of Stanisław Wyspiański's ideas contained in his Study and in Liberation. Wyspiański died of small-minded, egocentric Poland, entangled in national slogans. He reached for Hamlet because he saw in it the struggle of the Polish intelligentsia member who was facing the world of lies, triumphant cackle, and grotesque, which was transformed from an aesthetic category to a category describing the real world. The contemporary Polish Hamlet is a Hamlet of the post-truth times. The last loner of decency.
‘Play Hamlet wherever you want in Poland. Your words: deceit, theft, insolence, shall mean insolence, deceit and harm everywhere! And call for revenge!’
Photogallery photo by Bartek Barczyk © Teatr im. J. Słowacki in Krakow
