28th International Shakespeare Festival
Performances from Peru, Ukraine, Great Britain, Romania, Italy, Croatia and Poland will be presented as part of the 28th international Shakespeare Festival. The program includes, among others: "Hamlet" directed by Declan Donellan, '12. night or whatever you want” directed by Grzegorz Jarzyna, the Peruvian "Hamlet" by Chela De Ferrari and the post-apocalyptic version of Shakespeare's saddest tragedy "Romeo and Juliet" directed by Rostyslav Derzhypilski.
In addition, as many as 10 premieres, including a new production of the Gdańsk Shakespeare Theater - "The Tempest. Prequel” directed by Joanna Zdrada.
The past 27 editions have included over 240 teams from around the world and productions by European directors such as Luk Perceval, László Bocsárdi, Elizabeth LeCompte, Robert Sturua, Silviu Purcarete, Edward Hall, Giuseppe Dipasquale and many others. For 27 editions, interpretations of Shakespeare's plays from over 40 countries were presented, including Great Britain, Russia, Ukraine, Germany, Latvia, Cuba, Denmark, Italy, Belarus, Hungary, Armenia, Iceland, Israel, Iran, South Korea, and the United States. , Japan, Spain, Georgia, Finland, Sweden, Macedonia, Czech Republic, Romania and Zimbabwe.
One of the main political players in Shakespeare's "Antony and Cleopatra" calls the fight for leadership a "game for heads." Not only the heroes of the stage conflicts that ignite our imagination, but also the accidental victims of these clashes discover how brutal this game can be. "Let the heads roll" sounds like a cynical call to participate in dirty political games, which we can watch like Shakespeare's witches - taking pleasure in human misery.
In "head games" - both on and off stage - the stakes are the highest and there is no escape from them. Theater critic and Shakespeare expert, Jan Kott, writes that changes in power and conflicts are inevitable and at the same time terrifyingly ordinary. "Let the heads roll" - if they must and will roll. But do we have to helplessly watch the cruelty? Is the power to change history a cowardly passivity? Do we really have, as Hamlet wants, only two paths to choose from: passively enduring the "fierce arrows of fate" and active resistance to the "sea of misfortunes" that we must put an end to, even though it is impossible? Our slogan conceals rebellion and disagreement with this approach.
We also refer to rapid social changes, political turmoil, the capricious wheel of fate, the circle of history, the repetition of problems and mechanisms that crush individuals and destroy communities. Let heads roll. Let there be wars and political disputes, let the grindstones of history grind us: these are their rules. This does not mean, however, that we must humbly accept what fate gives us. The attitude we adopt towards the injustices of the world makes us human.
“Let heads roll”: it also sounds like a silent consent to the passing of time. This consent appears only when we develop the habit of calm reflection, accepting the inevitability of fate and becoming resistant to things over which we have no influence. Shakespeare therapy? Why not.