The Divine Comedy International Theater Festival in Krakow and its results

The jury of the 14th The Divine Comedy International Theater Festival in Krakow awarded prizes in the INFERNO and PARADISO competitions. The main prize for the best performance went jointly to the play "Uncle Wania" directed by Małgorzata Bogajewska from the Ludowy Theater in Krakow. The award ceremony took place on 11th December this year in the Łaźnia Nowa Theatre in Krakow.

After a year-long pandemic break, the Festival returned to the INFERNO competition, featuring 9 Polish performances produced in the passing season. "Taking into account the competition proposals and the times of triumph of post-drama theater, we want to point out a silent performance, somewhat out of current trends in theater, which, however, was performed with great sincerity," the jury justified its verdict.

The Main Prize is not the only for Małgorzata Bogajewska's play, a special one went jointly to Jadwiga Lesiak for the role of Marina's old nanny. The jury also awarded three acting awards to Piotr Franasowicz (Mikhail Astrow), Maja Pankiewicz (Sonia) and Piotr Pilitowski (Iwan Wojnicki).

In INFERNO section, artists could receive the Grand Prix and 8 individual prizes, awarded this year by an international jury composed of: Marina Davidowa, Katerina Evangelatos, Oana Cristea Grigorescu, Rolf C.Hemke, Haris Paśović. In addition to the awards in the INFERNO section, the jury composed of: Carlos Aladro, Geoliane Arab, Peter Carp, Kristina Savickiene prizes were also awarded in the PARADISO section for the director and individual prizes for actresses, actors, creators from graduation projects. In this category, 10 performances by young artists took part in the competition.

The remaining acting awards went to: Sebastian Pawlak - "the best performer of post-drama text" for his role in the production of TR Warszawa "Onko", dir. Weronika Szczawińska for a sensitive interpretation of the struggle with cancer; Łukasz Schmidt for the role of Father Flote in "Red Noses" by Jan Klata of the Nowy Theater in Poznań; Małgorzata Wdowik and Weronika Murek for the play "Shame" produced at Nowy Teatr in Warsaw - as the jury justified, "the awarded work offers an in-depth and panoramic view of the living conditions experienced by many Polish women."

Although the acting award was also awarded to Danuta Stenka for Charlotte's performances in the "Autumn Sonata" of the National Theater in Warsaw for "the ability to be on stage at the same time - strong and weak, ugly and beautiful, sensitive and oppressive, and for musical virtuosity, but without playing music, only told face ”, the controversy related to the director was a shadow on the performance - it is an echo of the scandal that accompanied the opening of the festival. As a result, one of the jurors admitted that he had excluded this performance from his vote.

This year's award of the "Inferno" competition was also given to the creators of the Wrocław Mime Theater, set designer Bartolomäus M. Kleppek, the light director Wolfgang Macher and the costume designer Karolina Mazur for the play "Tiki i other games" directed by Dominika Knapik