Romeo and Juliet

Love, which is born and develops in the shadow of death, i.e. the classical elaborate tale about a feeling, has here been minimalised into a form with four actors: two Romeos and two Juliets. How do we fall in love today? What sacrifices do we endure and how do we die because of love? This production constitutes an attempt to interpret the myth of romantic love in the context of questions about the contemporary human condition and the readiness of the individual to love. This in turn leads to contemplation: is true love possible without victims? Or can love which requires victims be real? The show is based on Wiktoria Rosicka’s translation from 1892 and it uses at the same time the Polish phonic language, Polish sign language and the ever-available surtitles in Polish. The creatives are striving to realise a universal show, one not requiring additional translation into Polish sign language, which is always available for audience members with hearing disabilities and for the hearing. The show has been created by d/Deaf and hearing persons.

Dominika Feiglewicz: graduated in dramatic acting at the Stanisław Wyspiański Theatre School in Kraków. She wrote her MA dissertation on the subject of art as individual therapy, which gave her the impulse towards activities in the theatre with excluded people. An actor and Disabled Access Coordinator at the Juliusz Słowacki Theatre in Kraków, she is also founder and chairperson of the Migawka Foundation, which works on including the deaf and hard-of-hearing in the active creation of art. Winner of the Journalists’ Toucan award for her “consistency in artistic searching in which sign language changes into a performative gesture and becomes an equal form of expression, existing on the stage in parallel with the singing of Natalia Orkisz and for showing that you can sing without making a sound”. She also received the Special Award from the ZAiKS Authors’ Association for the best performance of a Polish song at the 41st Review of Actors’ Songs in Wrocław.

Zdenka Pszczołowska – director, dramaturge, graduate of Comparative Literature and Performance Studies at the Jagiellonian University, 4th-year student at the Faculty of Play Directing at the Stanisław Wyspiański Theatre Academy in Kraków, laureate of the Sławomir Świontek Special Prize for the best work on Theatre Theory in the Theatrical Institute competition for the best MA dissertation in the field of Knowledge of the Theatre, Spectacle and Performance in the 2018/2019 academic year, author of the play “Fabrykantka” [“Factory woman”], published by the Narodowy Stary Theatre and edited by Daria Będkowska and Agata Dąbek in the “Nasz głos” anthology.

Creators

Translation – Wiktoria Rosicka
Directed by – Dominika Feiglewicz, Zdenka Pszczołowska
Dramaturgy in Polish sign language – Jakub Studziński
Choreography – Anna Maria Krysiak
Design animations and music – Paweł Penarski
Design – Anna Oramus
Costumes – Krystian Foltyniewicz

Cast

Julia – Dominika Kozłowska (guest)
Julia – Marta Mazurek (guest)
Romeo – Rafał Bołdys (guest)
Romeo – Karol Kubasiewicz

Première – 11 June 2023
Languages – Polish phonic and Polish sign language with Polish and English surtitles

English translation and proofreading © Tadeusz Z. Wolański
Tłumaczenie na język angielski i korekta w języku angielskim: Tadeusz Z. Wolański