Krzysztof Warlikowski's Theatre and the Possibility of Encounter

KRZYSZTOF WARLIKOWSKI’S THEATRE AND THE POSSIBILITY OF ENCOUNTER A thesis submitted to the University of Manchester for the degree of PhD in the Faculty of Humanities 2012 JUSTYNA DROBNIK-ROGERS School of Languages, Linguistics and Cultures CONTENTS Abstract………………………………………………………………………………..4 Declaration………………………………………………………………………..…...5 Copyright Statement………………………………………………………………….5 Acknowledgments ……………………………………………………………… …...6 The Author ……………………………………………………………………………7 Introduction …………………………………………………………………………...8 Rationale ………………………………………………………………………………..8 Research questions and organisation of the thesis ……………………………………...19 Krzysztof Warlikowski’s work in Polish criticism ……………………………………....22 Methodological and theoretical framework …………………………………………......28 Chapter 1 Krzysztof Warlikowski and the driving forces of his work: key issues and topics…………………………………………………………………………………...38 Displacement and belonging: the personal and socio-cultural context …………………..39 Hybrid identity: ‘Polishness’ and ‘foreignness’ at play …………………………………...57 Chapter 2 Preconditions of performance ………………………………………………………...78 Discovering a personal way of theatre-making ………………………………………......78 Creating the ensemble …………………………………………………………………..89 Organic nature of the ensemble ………………………………………………………..105 Chapter 3 Actors as co-creators or shared creative practice…………………………………...110 Training the interpreters of the text …………………………………………………....111 2 From interpreters to creators …………………………………………………………..117 Between life and acting ………………………………………………………………...128 Work on character ……………………………………………………………………..142 Chapter 4 Performance as event………………………………………………………………...151 Reconfiguring the relationship with the audience: new contra old in Polish theatre post- 1989……………………………………………………………………………………152 Bodily co-presence of actors and spectators …………………………………………....164 The experience of liminality …………………………………………………………....179 Conclusion …………………………………………………………………………...189 Revisiting the thesis aim and the research questions…………………………………....189 The contribution of this study ………………………………………………………....192 Final remarks ………………………………………………………………………......194 Appendix ………………………………………………………………………….......199 Bibliography………………………………………………………………………......206 Final word count (including footnotes): 79,939 3 ABSTRACT This thesis discusses the work of theatre director Krzysztof Warlikowski, which holds an important place within Polish and world theatre, although it remains little known in the UK. It argues that that existing approaches to Warlikowski’s theatre are inadequate as they focus too much on the perspective of an interpreter of productions who decodes the meaning of the performance. Instead Warlikowki’s work should be approached from the perspective of an observer of the complex creative processes that lead to performance and determine its relationship with the audience. The connection between actors and spectators takes the form of an ‘encounter’ that offers a particular experience of theatregoing. It aims to challenge the existing customs of spectatorship and is based on destabilising and violating the sense of safety of both actors and spectators while expanding their experience of performance beyond the ‘here and now’. This thesis asks questions about the distinctive conditions that make possible the type of encounter that lies at the heart of Warlikowski’s oeuvre and distinguishes it from Polish repertory theatre. The theoretical framework of ‘intertheatricality’ facilitates identification of the matrix of elements that inform this encounter. These elements are constituted by: 1.The strategies that have led Warlikowski to become a successful director and enabled him to create a new way of theatre-making and communication with audience; 2. The complex processes of the creation of his ensemble of actors; 3. The family-like setting and the collaborative nature of rehearsals; 4. The status of actors who become the co-authors of performance and their idiosyncratic involvement in the creation of shows that cross the borders between work and life; and finally, 5. The role of the audience that becomes an integral element of the performance making process. Seeing Warlikowski’s work from the perspective of performance as event shows it not as a static and completed artefact, but as a fleeting, transient process that is open to changes and resonates with the outside world. Through its focus on creative processes, this approach sheds new light on the theatre of Warlikowski. It shows how he integrates the actors and audience into his performance making process, and also helps to demonstrate his impact on the status of audience within Polish mainstream theatre post-1989. 4 DECLARATION No portion of the work referred to in this thesis has been submitted in support of an application for another degree or qualification of this or any other university or other institute of learning. COPYRIGHT STATEMENT 1. The author of this thesis owns any copyright in it (the “Copyright”) and she has given The University of Manchester the right to use such Copyright for any administrative, promotional, educational and/or teaching purposes. 2. Copies of this thesis, either in full or in extracts, may be made only in accordance with the regulations of the John Rylands University Library of Manchester. Details of these regulations may be obtained from the Librarian. This page must form part of any such copies made. 3. The ownership of any patents, designs, trade marks and any and all other intellectual property rights except for the Copyright (the “Intellectual Property Rights”) and any reproductions of copyright works, for example graphs and tables (“Reproductions”), which may be described in this thesis, may not be owned by the author and may be owned by third parties. Such Intellectual Property Rights and Reproductions cannot and must not be made available for use without the prior written permission of the owner(s) of the relevant Intellectual Property Rights and/or Reproductions. 4. Further information on the conditions under which disclosure, publication and exploitation of this thesis, the Copyright and any Intellectual Property Rights and/or Reproductions described in it may take place is available from the Head of School of Languages, Linguistcs and Cultures. 5 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I have accumulated numerous debts while working on this thesis. I owe my deepest gratitude to my supervisors, Professor Dee Reynolds and Doctor Aleksandar Saŝa Dundjerovic for their guidance, patience and the time they spent reading and commenting on my thesis, helping me throughout this long journey often beyond their call of duty. Thank you for all our inspiring meetings, your encouragement and support in all the difficult moments and for your continuous enthusiasm and sheer insights into the work of Krzysztof Warlikowski. It has been an honour to work with you. I am also deeply indebted to my academic advisor, Doctor Ewa Ochman whose enormous kindness, insightful suggestions and encouragement have helped to shape this thesis and have been very important throughout this process. I am most grateful to Krzysztof Warlikowski and the actors of Nowy Teatr in Warszawa, in particular Jacek Poniedziałek, as well as other collaborators, many of whom I quote in this study. They all gave me their time, energy and attention, patiently answering my questions and stimulating my research. I thank them all for their inspiring theatre work. I am especially indebted to the anonymous referees and editors of the Polish Theatre Perspective for their feedback and suggestions on my article on Krzysztof Warlikowski, which helped to shape fragments of this thesis, especially the discussion in chapters 2 and 3. My warm thanks go to the excellent and supportive archivists at TR Warszawa, Teatr Nowy in Poznań, Teatr Powszechny im. Jana Kochanowskiego in Radom and Teatr im. Wilama Horzycy in Toruń for their exemplary courtesy and efficiency, which facilitated my research. I am especially thankful to Professor Dee Reynolds who helped me with the proofreading of this thesis. I also wish to express my sincere thanks to Doctor Ian Popple for his guidance on academic writing and to Wanda Opalinska for her comments on the last draft. I thank Jula and Paweł Kacprzak for their long-term friendship and boundless hospitality, which enabled my fieldwork research in Warszawa. I am also grateful to the School of Languages, Linguistics and Cultures who awarded me with a fee-bursary to conduct this research. My thanks are also due to my fellow students and colleagues at Language Centre for their help and encouragment. Finally, though not least, I am immensely grateful to my friends, wonderful parents and family, as well as my husband, Zacc, for their patience, understanding and support throughout my studies. 6 THE AUTHOR I graduated with an MA in Polish Language and Literature, specialising in Drama and Theatre Studies from the Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań in 2001. I began my doctoral study at the University of Manchester in 2006. 7 Introduction Rationale Krzysztof Warlikowski’s work is very important in Polish as well as world theatre. No studies to date have addressed the specificity of his theatre, illustrated by his collaborative way of working, the role of the actors, the move away from text and the involvement of the audience in the process of creating performance. Little attention is paid to the fact that the processes used in the creation of a performance continue to impact on the work when it is performed to an audience – and that it

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