Features of Krszystof Warlikowski’s Direction through the Prism of the Trends of Modern European Theatre

Abstract

The purpose of the article is to identify the characteristic features of K. Warlikowski’s directorial work in the context of the features of the development of modern European theatre. Research methodology. The analytical method, the historical-cultural method, the method of biographical reconstruction and the typological method (to clarify the process of formation and development of K. Warlikowski’s directing), as well as the method of art history, genre-style and structural analysis, which contributed to the conceptualisation of the master’s directing, were applied. Scientific novelty. The features of K. Warlikowski’s directing of the late 20th century – the first decades of the 21st century were studied. The director’s approaches to staging dramatic performances, the specifics of the author’s vision, the formation of the visual series of performances and the interaction between the viewer and the actor were considered. K. Warlikowski’s directing is analysed through the prism of the “performative turn”. Conclusions. Krzysztof Warlikowski did not create a system or method that could be easily applied by other theatre practitioners, but his way of working, commitment and approach to both the actor and the viewer are a source of inspiration for other theatre figures. K. Warlikowski’s performances – built on a game of associations, the denial of the viewing process as a comfortable process, but certainly a source of new experience – are not a completed, fixed and ready-made cultural product, but temporary events open to change, which is the result of constant work on the production and events in the lives of the actors and the director. For more than twenty years, the director has been advocating for a deep renewal of the language of European theatre. Drawing on references to cinema and the original use of video, inventing new forms of theatre aimed at restoring the connection between the play and the spectator, he calls on the latter to discover for themselves what is hidden under the background of everyday life. At the present stage, K. Warlikovsky represents his theatre productions at the leading festivals of the world, from Europe to America, and stages lyrical operas on the stages of the main European opera houses. The director’s productions as a free artist are an attempt to open poetic gaps to show the other side of the coin, in the process of self-knowledge and complex anthropological research.