The 26th Shakespeare Festival is being organised at a particular time – during a war which is being waged across our border. We are impressed that our friends – artists and activists from Ukraine – are still conducting artistic activities. Productions are performed online, in town squares, and even in shelters, e.g. one of the first plays produced during the war, “Hamlet drama per musica”, was performed in the cellar of the theatre in Ivano-Frankivsk. Theatres have also been turned into places offering help to refugees. Ukrainian festivals are trying to be active despite the extremely difficult circumstances. The Gogol Festival is trying to support the artistic community of Mariupol and, with the help of multimedia interventions, to bring about a realisation of the enormous role culture has played in the development of this city.

We have decided to invite creatives and representatives from Ukrainian festivals (Gogol Fest, Porto Franko from Ivano-Frankivsk) and also two directors present at our Shakespeare Festival (Tetiana Shelepko and Tamara Trunova) to address us and to tell us how the Ukrainian theatre is functioning during a war. We want to find out how we, the people concerned with culture in Poland and Europe, can help. We want to give our friends from Ukraine a voice, to participate with them, and support them. During the international Shakespeare Festival in Gdańsk, we will see “L_UKR_ECE”, based on “The rape of Lucrece” by William Shakespeare. The premiere of this production was performed at the Shakespeare Festival in Craiova in Romania. Gdańsk will see its developed version. The creatives will also talk about the process of the creation of the performance and conduct workshops devoted to the recovering of relations with one’s own body after traumatic experiences.

Furthermore, for people from Ukraine, a 50% saving can be made on tickets for shows and 15% of the proceeds from sales of festival posters and gadgets on the basis of John Stanisci’s graphic works will be donated to the “Gdańsk helps Ukraine” charity campaign organised by the Gdańsk Foundation.

TOGETHER WITH UKRAINE PROGRAMME

EXHIBITION OPENING
27.07, 17.00, Gdańsk Shakespeare Theatre
ShakeArt! vol. 2
exhibition of works by Polish and Ukrainian artists

Curator: Małgorzata Limon
Organiser: Fundacja Arte Infinita, wspierana przez Fundację Teatrum Gedanense / supported by the Theatrum Gedanense Foundation
Admission free

ShakeArt! is an artistic event initiated in 2021 during the 25th Shakespeare Festival in the Gdańsk Shakespeare Theatre. During the covid-19 pandemic, many artists felt a lack of strength for artistic activity and galleries remained closed to viewers. Reality without art became oppressive and empty. After a long period of artistic stagnation, there arose the idea to create an exhibition integrating creatives from various art forms. The project was dedicated to the memory of Professor Jerzy Limon.

This year, Polish and Ukrainian artists have been invited by the Arte Infinita Foundation to measure themselves against the “Shakespeare challenge”. Each artist had the task of painting a work inspired by a play by the Bard of Avon and choosing an appropriate quotation to be located under the painting. We will see works by local artists and those from Kyiv, Lviv, and Crimea. There will be large-scale works by Gdynia artist, Joanna Śmielowska-Jaremin, who has painted “Ophelia”, and batiks painted on silk by Wilga Badowska.

The exhibition will be the fruit of cooperation between artists creating with the use of different techniques and expressing themselves in various styles, active in both Poland and Ukraine. Shakespeare and his works are one common denominator uniting the participants of the exhibition.

During the exhibition, it will be possible to purchase paintings from the artists. The entire profit will go to the authors of the works. The Gdańsk Shakespeare Theatre and the Arte Infinita Foundation are not taking any commission for promoting the work of the artists invited to the exhibition.

DEBATE
30.07, 15.00, Gdańsk Shakespeare Theatre
The theatre in times of war

Tamara Trunova (theatre director, Chief director – Kyiv Academic Theatre of Drama and Comedy), Tetiana Shelepko (theatre director and activist), Andrii Palatnyi (Gogol Fest) and Rostyslav Derzhypilsky (National Academic Music and Drama Theatre in Ivano-Frankivsk)
Admission free
The artists will share their experiences from the last five months of the war in Ukraine. They will discuss the changes that have taken place in European theatre as a result of the influence of the threat of war and crisis. During the debate, they will present the productions and activities conducted by Ukrainian artists. The participants will consider what the “cultural front” is, how it operates, and how Ukrainian theatre influences Europe.

L_UKR_ECE PERFORMANCE
29.07 o 17.00 i 20.00 oraz 30.07 o 17.00, Teatr w Oknie
L_UKR_ECE, directed by Tetiana Shelepko, performed by Kristina Bila
Tickets 

TOGETHER WITH UKRAINE / MEETING
30.07, Teatr w Oknie
A meeting with the creators of L_UKR_ECE – Tetiana Shelepko and Kristina Bila

WORKSHOPS
31.07, 17.00-20.00, GTS workshop room (sala warsztatowa)
RAW: Relief Acting Workshop. Synesthesia
Prowadząca / Led by / Веде: Tetiana Shelepko (Ukraina)
Admission free, registration required / Участь безкоштовна, обов’язковий запис: marta.nowicka@teatrszekspirowski.pl
Acting techniques, methods of body work and stress reduction, including PTSD symptoms.
Акторські техніки, методи роботи з тілом і редукція стресу, в тому числі симптомів ПТСР.
In English and Ukrainian / англійською і українською мовами.