The following performances were included in the New Yorick final:

• Winners of the New Yorick 2024 competition:
  • Alexander Dulak, Burza [The Tempest] (selected by Studio Theatre in Warsaw)

In his interpretation of The Tempest, Alexander Dulak places Shakespeare’s text in an extreme situation — a failed polar expedition. The idea is not without merit — the crews of these 19th-century expeditions, immobilised by adverse weather conditions, resorted to creating amateur theatre to kill boredom and stay sane. The effort to perform was an effort to survive. In this concept, the convergence of the situation of a similar expedition with the themes of Shakespeare’s text reciprocally drive each other, giving the opportunity for a poignantly and complexly dense staging. Alexander’s project also captivated us with the imagery but, in addition the discipline of the writing, and a conversation with the director confirmed that he knows how he wants to realise a well-developed concept, in our opinion. The story of the audiosphere experienced by the pioneers of distant winter expeditions led us to believe that, despite the minimal set design, the final show of the work would be based on the formal explorations we are interested in at STUDIO Theatre — woven into the drama of the play, communicatively guided and engaging and involving the audience. Shakespeare’s The Tempest is known for its insistence on ‘accountability’; Prospero, in parallel with the author of the text, takes stock of his creative life. What intrigued us about the young director’s idea is the shift in emphasis in this sphere — his Tempest seems to talk about the meaning of art in general and to seek an answer to the question “what is creation for?”, which, at the dawn of an age of automated creativity, may once again become a relevant question.

Marcin Cecko, Literary Manager at Studio Theatre in Warsaw

• Ludmiła Dziasek, Sen nocy letniej [Midsummer Night’s Dream] (selected by Teatr Wybrzeże)

The young director Miłka Dziasek wants to enter boldly the land of dreams and desires. Armed with psychoanalytic weapons and an unfettered post-Buñuel imagination, she wants to experiment on stage and find out which world is more fictional: the world of our dreamlike desires or our socio-cultural universe, in which the most ardent desires are subdued and often pushed to the margins of consciousness. At the same time, Dziasek believes that theatre has the tools for such an experiment, namely to touch reality and dream at the same time, the most unrestrained desire and the most strict prohibition, the possibility of playing with the unconscious  and the most sublime consciousness and self-consciousness. And if she believes in all this, it would be a pity to tame her young and unfettered creative energy. So we have chosen A Midsummer Night’s Dream and Miłka Dziasek. – Radosław Paczocha, Deputy Programme Director at Teatr Wybrzeże in Gdańsk

• Kolektyw DUPA*, Romeo i Julia w krainie fakapu [Romeo and Juliet in the Fuckup Land] (selected by Theater of Wilam Horzyca in Toruń)

What does love look like and will it still be possible in 2030 in a world of consumption, corporations and price wars?  Romeo and Juliet between the shelves of large discount stores, intrusive advertising and the fight for customers make it difficult to follow the path of eternal lovers. In the form of a punk-anarchist musical, the DUPA collective builds a surprising context for a new reading of Romeo and Juliet and invites the audience on a journey to a utopian future. Alongside Shakespeare’s original phrasing, there will be racy hip-hop beats.  The DUPA collective has prepared a form of parody by combining Shakespeare’s text with shallow formal solutions reminiscent of TikTok and other social media. A silly joke? A provocation? Or perhaps a kind of manifesto? – Renata Derejczyk, Łukasz Czuj, Directors at Theater of Wilam Horzyca in Toruń

* Dom Utopijnej Pracy Artystycznej (the collective is formed by Ewa Galica & Michał Lazar)

Rules of the New Yorick 2023 Competition