One of the most prominent Polish directors of the past two decades is staging his seventh Shakespearean play, though only the second comedy. The previous one, Measure for Measure produced in Prague, was by no means a light-hearted and light-toned performance. There should be no expectations for a light, easy, and enjoyable theatre in the case of A Midsummer Night’s Dream either, as Klata defies tradition interpreting what perhaps is one of Shakespeare’s best-known works. In his eye, it becomes an uncompromising tale of a world where violence has become the norm to the point of surprising nobody any more, and the men he portrays deeply hate women. Instead of carefree merrymaking and a belief in the power of faerie magic, including that of the cheerful sprite Puck, Klata immerses us in a nightmarish dream, a muggy nightmare – tormenting and suffocating, yet unescapable. Powerful sequences prove that societal pathologies are irreversible. The other extreme is taken by the mechanicals’ theatre being a satire on today’s dictatorship of political correctness in the self-satisfied art world, with phrases overheard during rehearsals of other avant-garde creatives. The fantastic performance by the ensemble of the New Theatre from Poznań makes a powerful impression, while Antonina Choroszy’s portrayal of Oberon’s wife is exceptional: there’s never been a Titania like her before.

→ after the performance, a meeting with the creators led by: Zuzanna Berendt