Meaningless acts: migratory aesthetics in Krzysztof Warlikowski's and Paweł Miśkiewicz's dystopian adaptations of The Tempest

This essay discusses two post-1989 adaptations of Shakespeare's The Tempest in the Polish theatre that use text distortion, fragmentation, and intertextuality as ways of addressing the difficult heritage of World War II. Applying the notion of migratory aesthetics in a theatrical context mobilises the interpretive potential of contemporary theatre as an act of recalling a traumatic past. Generational trauma is addressed and processed through the productions of Krzysztof Warlikowski's Burza (2003) and Paweł Miśkiewicz's more recent Burza Williama Szekpira (2018). These two productions are analysed according to strategies typical of traumatic recall, i.e., dissociation and repression, to reflect on the dystopian elements in The Tempest, aspects already addressed by Jan Kott in his pre-1989 interpretations of the play.