We find the true masters of theater, rather, far from the stage. Usually, they are the ones who understand that theater is not a machine for reproducing clichés and conventions. They are the ones who seek the living source that you do not always find in theater halls where crowds of people crowd every day, preoccupied with copying one world or another. We copy, instead of creating our own worlds that incite debates, which are based on the emotions hidden inside us. In fact, it is precisely the Theater that manages to reveal these worlds.

I often turn to prose to better understand the theater. Every day, I find myself thinking about the writers who, almost a hundred years ago, prophetically, but without exaggeration, described the decline of the European gods, the sunset that plunged our civilization into a darkness from which light has not yet dawned. I think of Franz Kafka, Thomas Mann, and Marcel Proust. To these prophets I would add today the name of John Maxwell Coetzee.

Their common feeling of the inevitable end of the world – not of the planet, but of a model of interhuman relations – and of the social order and its upheavals, accompanies us today, deeply marking us. Us, those who live after the end of the world. We, who live in the face of crimes and conflicts that break out every day, in ever-changing places, even faster than the media can report them. Moreover, these „fires” quickly become boring and disappear without a trace from the press reports. And we feel helpless, terrified and cornered. We are no longer able to raise towers, and the walls we stubbornly build do not protect us from anything; on the contrary, they themselves need protection and care, which consumes a good part of our vital energy. And we no longer have the strength to try to see what lies behind the gates, beyond the wall. This is precisely why theater should exist and, from there, behind the gates, seek its strength. To penetrate with our gaze where we are forbidden.

„"But the legend tries to explain the inexplicable. Since it starts from a truth, it must end again in the inexplicable" - in these words Kafka describes the transformation of the legend of Prometheus. I deeply associate these words with the way theater should be. And such a theater, which has its beginning in the depths of truth and its end in the inexplicable, I wish for all its servants, both those on the stage and those in the audience. I wish it for them with all my heart!

Krzysztof Warlikowski (Romanian translation: Luiza Savescu)

Krzysztof Warlikowski is one of the most representative European directors of his generation. He was born in Poland in 1962. Together with the set designer Małgorzata Szczęśniak, Warlikowski creates exceptional theatrical images. In his work with the actor, he guides him to the deepest layers of his creativity. He practically invented a new way of staging Shakespeare. His work also includes subversive interpretations of Greek tragedies, and he is also known for staging contemporary authors. His production, purifying by Sarah Kane was very well received at the Avignon Festival in 2002 and at the Festival de Théâtre des Amériques in Montreal – this being a decisive moment for Warlikowski's entry onto the international stage.

Since 2008 he has been the artistic director of NowyTeatre (New Theatre) in Warsaw, where he has directed four performances to date, based on his own adaptations of several texts: (A) Pollonia (2009), end (2010),African stories by Shakespeare (2011) andKabaretwarszawski (2013). He is currently working on a stage adaptation of the novel In search of lost time by Marcel Proust.

At NowyTeatre, Warlikowski created a personal vision of the role and place of theatre in society, involving the audience as well. His motto for theatre became: ”Escape through theatre.”