Whose Authority May I Ask? Polish, English, German, Shakespearean or Directorial? On the Boundaries Between Ethnicity, Nationality, Religion and Theatricality in Jan Klata’s Shakespearean Productions

Authors

  • Jacek Fabiszak Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.18778/2083-8530.17.05

Keywords:

authority, authorship, performance, post-dramatic theatre, Shakespeare productions in Poland, Jan Klata

Abstract

Jan Klata is a director who has been labelled a provocateur and who is considered to hold nothing cultural or national sacred. From the beginning of his artistic career he is said to have challenged authorities: theatrical, ethnic, national, etc. by debunking and questioning prevailing heroic myths and forms. Today, imperceptibly yet steadily, Klata himself becomes an authority and his theatrical productions gradually become classics in the eyes of the new generations of theatre directors and audiences, at the same time inciting and inevitably inviting cultural rebellion ... The article examines Klata’s treatment of theatrical and national authority in his Shakespeare productions, on the one hand, and the image of the director as an authority on the other. All in the light of the theoretical model on authority in theatre, especially in Shakespeare productions, developed by W.B. Worthen.

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Author Biography

Jacek Fabiszak, Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań

Jacek Fabiszak teaches cultural history and theory at the Faculty of English, Adam Mickiewicz University, Poznań. His research interests include English Renaissance theatre and drama and their stage, televisual and filmic transpositions. He has published and given papers at conferences on Shakespeare’s plays—one of his major publications in this area is Polish Televised Shakespeares (Poznań: Motivex, 2005). Jacek Fabiszak also applied linguistic and sociological tools in the analysis of drama, which resulted in the publication of Shakespeare’s Drama of Social Roles (Piła, 2001), a book that attempts to interpret Shakespeare’s Last Plays in light of the theory of social roles and speech act theory. Furthermore, Jacek Fabiszak has popularized the Bard’s works in Poland co-authoring Szekspir. Leksykon [Shakespeare. A lexicon. Kraków, 2003] and co-editing CzytanieSzekspira [Reading Shakespeare]. He has also written on Christopher Marlowe, both his plays (focusing on imagery) and their screen versions (especially Edward II).

References

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Published

2018-06-30

How to Cite

Fabiszak, J. (2018). Whose Authority May I Ask? Polish, English, German, Shakespearean or Directorial? On the Boundaries Between Ethnicity, Nationality, Religion and Theatricality in Jan Klata’s Shakespearean Productions. Multicultural Shakespeare: Translation, Appropriation and Performance, 17(32), 51–60. https://doi.org/10.18778/2083-8530.17.05

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