A Midsummer Night’s Dream

What if we were to imagine a place in which love is available to everyone without cultural barriers or social judgments? A place in which we can, without shame or fear, talk about our needs while simultaneously considering how we can respond to them. In one of his most famous plays, Shakespeare invites a pair of lovers into a mysterious forest, wher they have to define themselves anew and set off on a journey to satisfy their basic needs. Shakespeare’s forest becomes a safe place where people denied the right to love and to sexuality can experience these things.

Jakub Skrzywanek and Justyna Sobczyk, the director and founder of Theatre 21, have invited Szczecin actors with disabilities to try, together with the Współczesny Theatre company from Szczecin, to show what the desire for love is and can be today.

“The production becomes an eclectic mixture of ideas, media and forms.” / Zofia Kowalska, Teatr dla Wszystkich

“The positive ‘virus’ in the form of non-normative actors causes us to define anew what theatre is – it is no longer just the home of great literature and great actorial creations, but a place of self-advocacy, activism, creative freedom and democratic decisions.” / Zofia Kowalska, Teatr dla Wszystkich

“‘A Midsummer Night’s’ is a multi-level, not only in meaning, spectacle with great staging momentum. (…) It is here that the play not so much replaces but creates a parallel world, a more just, better, more beautiful world.”
Daniel Źródlewski

“‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’ might shock some viewers. Let us niot pretend, however, that to pass over some themes in silence, even if they affect sexuality, can make them go away.” / Piotr Dobrowolski, czaskultury.pl

Creators

Script – Jakub Skrzywanek, Monika Świerkosz
Directors – Justyna Sobczyk, Jakub Skrzywanek
Dramaturgical cooperation and research – Monika Świerkosz
Design, Lighting director – Agata Skwarczyńska
Costumes – Anna Rogóż, Agata Skwarczyńska
Music – Jacaszek
Choreography – Agnieszka Kryst
Video – Piotr Nykowski
Lighting direction cooperation – Monika Stolarska
Designer’s assistant – Anna Rogóż
Directors’ assistants – Barbara Lewandowska, Wojciech Sandach

Cast

Brother/Son/Customer – Roman Słonina (guest)
Sister – Barbara Lewandowska
Mother – Ewa Sobiech
Sexworker – Helena Urbańska
Helena – Iwona Kowalska
Hermia – Joanna Matuszak
Hippolyta – Magdalena Myszkiewicz
Theseus – Paweł Adamski
Egeus – Marian Dworakowski
Demetrius – Paweł Niczewski
Lysander – Wojciech Sandach
Puck/Wall – Amelia Blus (guest)
Puck/Thisbe – Jolanta Niemira (guest)
Puck/Moonshine – Justyna Utracka (guest)
Puck/Moonshine – Bogusław Krasnodębski (guest)
Moral guardian/Prologue – Grażyna Madej
Moral guardian/Pyramus – Wiesław Orłowski
Moral guardian/Lion – Konrad Pawicki

Based on the motifs of William Shakespeare’s comedy in Stanisław Barańczak’s translation, and on interviews conducted with people with disabilities, their families and people dealing with sexual assistance and sexual work.

Première – 25 February 2023
Language – Polish with English subtitles