African Tales by Shakespeare
In “African Tales by Shakespeare,” director Krzysztof Warlikowski and actors from Nowy Teatr return to Shakespeare in a production which places Othello, The Merchant of Venice and King Lear, alongside with John Maxwell Coetzee’s Summertime and Wajdi Mouawad’s monologues (which were especially written for the play). In this thought-provoking five-hour theatre show, Shakespeare’s protagonists – Lear, Othello and Shylock – are depicted as outcasts who share a single fate and are thus played by the same actor. In the program notes, Warlikowski explains how “Even in the most civilized communities, the Jew, the black man and the old man still evoke aversion, hatred, anxiety and fear”. The text from Coetzee, the South-African Nobel laureate who grew up under the apartheid, helps to highlight the experience of what it is to be an outsider. “African Tales” is an unusual piece, which transcends the literary works it invokes, be it in its representation of a sassy Desdemona, or in the visual references which point to Art Spiegelman’s iconic Maus, and its depiction of Jews as mice and Poles as pigs. Somehow, each character’s pain finds its way to the audience, which also feels discomfort when seeing Othello played by a Polish actor with his hands and face painted in black. Warlikowski makes us feel intentionally uneasy, so as to remind Europe of the perils of hatred and exclusion. This was a Prospero project, an European initiative which aimed to create a common cultural platform between nations.
“African Tales by Shakespeare” premiered on October 5, 2011 in Liège, Belgium, Théâtre de la Place. The Polish premiere took place on December 2, 2011.
Cast and crew
Cast:
Stanisława Celińska, Ewa Dałkowska, Adam Ferency, Małgorzata Hajewska-Krzysztofik, Wojciech Kalarus, Marek Kalita, Zygmunt Malanowicz, Maja Ostaszewska, Piotr Polak, Jacek Poniedziałek, Magdalena Popławska
Direction: Krzysztof Warlikowski
Adaptation: Krzysztof Warlikowski, Piotr Gruszczyński
Dramaturgy: Piotr Gruszczyński
African Tales by Shakespeare Programme
Set design and costumes: Małgorzata Szczęśniak
Lighting design: Felice Ross
Music: Paweł Mykietyn
Choreography: Claude Bardouil
Video: Kamil Polak
Technical manager: Paweł Kamionka
Assistant to the set designer: Marcin Chlanda
Assistant director and video projections: Katarzyna Łuszczyk
Stage manager: Łukasz Jóźków
Light: Dariusz Adamski
Sound: Mirosław Burkot
Make up and hair: Monika Kaleta
Props: Tomasz Laskowski
Stage: Kacper Maszkiewicz
Wardrobe: Elżbieta Fornalska, Ewa Sokołowska
Select Photos by Magda Hueckel and Konrad Pustoła
scene from Othello
scene from King Lear
scene from The Merchant of Venice
Further Reading
About the show (from theater company website) – http://www.nowyteatr.org/en/plays/opowiesci-afrykanskie-wg-szekspira
About the show (from web portal devoted to Polish culture) – https://culture.pl/en/work/the-african-tales-by-shakespeare-krzysztof-warlikowski
About the director (from web portal devoted to Polish culture) – https://culture.pl/en/artist/krzysztof-warlikowski
Production notes provided by Maria Sequeira Mendes, Assistant Professor, School of Arts and Humanities – University of Lisbon.
