Il desiderio di utopia. Elementi per definire la costruzione delle distopie teatrali polacche

The paper concerns some elements of the construction of worlds represented on stage in recent Polish theatre. This may be seen as a comment on the state of democratic Poland after 1989 and, more generally, as an analysis of the peculiarities of the contemporary world. However, a deeper analysis shows recent theatre staging as structurally similar to the construction of dystopias. The worlds represented on stage are characterized by the presence of a nonlinear construction of time, by the absence of ending, of a horizon and of death, by the presence of ruins (intended literally, as an aesthetic paradigm, and metaphorically) and by the construction of dystopian characters. The analysis focuses on one of the most important performances for the Polish political theatre of the last two decades, H. (2004), a version of Hamlet directed by Jan Klata, performed in the historic and derelict Gdańsk Shipyard, a symbolic stage set which becomes at the same time the place of fulfilment of dystopia and of the emergence of the desire for utopia.