„Czy wiesz, że mój teatr gra po polsku?” – oto pytanie, które wzbudziło moje największe zainteresowanie podczas corocznej konferencji nordyckich teatrologów.

After noticing the great interest of the Polish migrants in Polish cultural events in Reykjavík, Ólafur Ásgeirsson saw a niche for his artistic explorations. He created PólíS, a theatre group comprised of Poles and Icelanders, professional and amateur actors. Polish actors to create performances aimed at the Polish minority. PólíS’s second production, Tu jest za drogo (It’s too expensive here), was staged at the Reykjavík City Theatre, a prestigious location for Reykjavík’s cultural life in 2022. This move transgressed social and political boundaries, perhaps even challenging the city’s cultural life and beliefs about the immigrant’s place in the fabric of the city.In my article, firstly, I position Tu jest za drogo among other strategies for staging performances in foreign languages. Secondly, I place it in a transmigrant context (Glick Schiller 1995), which studies embeddedness in two or more cultures, to explain to whom and why the PólíS’ strategy might appeal. Thirdly, I refer to the concept of third space in theatre (Woodson 2015) to explain the power relations in the creation and reception processes.My material comes from semi-structured interviews with the PólíS’ members and a City Theatre representative, as well as qualitative analysis of the social media texts and analysis of the PólíS’ play Tu jest za drogo.

I remember the first time I came across the utopian performative: the butterflies in my stomach, the overwhelming feeling of hope and happiness it produced. Jill Dolan [2005] points to those moments during performances when the audience comes together and feels hopeful; moments that constitute inspiration for change: for the performer, the spectator, and maybe even the world – and which are often (understandably) politically or socially charged.

But my experiences were different: my feeling of hope was not emerging after watching a political vision of the future, but during and after my encounters with beauty. I began to wonder: can a profound sense of beauty that brings the feeling of hope and love, also have the potential to change the world?

In this article, I explore the aesthetics of the theatrical event and its effectiveness in bringing out utopian performatives. Theoretically, I draw on Erika Fischer-Lichte’s aesthetics of the performative to show how the language of performance analysis can access a theatrical (aesthetic) experience and on the theory of affect in performance to understand my experience; also, I supplement Dolan’s theory with Dorthe Jørgensen’s experience of beauty to extend her thinking into non-political experiences and grasping them more fully.

As an example, I discuss Oratorium Dance Project (Lodz 2011).

Almost each year, the pop-cultural world is buzzing with a “new” Nordic word that can bring a piece of Nordic life to every home. Lagom, fika, fredagsmys or hygge - they all refer to slowness, break, taking a moment to feel good and happy, being considerate. Those concepts are believed to be a Nordic approach to life - and a very desirable one.When I think of theatre in this context, one Nordic invention comes to my mind: theatre talks, which emerged as an audience reception research method in Sweden. They proved to be an effective audience development practice (even for non-theatregoers) in Australia (Scollen), Denmark (Hansen; Lindelof), and Poland (Rapior) because (among other things) they bring the element of pleasure, community building, and feeling safe into the theatre experience especially for non-attenders.In this article I will focus on looking at theatre as a possible “oasis of deceleration” in the constantly accelerating world, using Hartmut Rosa’s theory of social acceleration. By going through the development of theatre talks, I will demonstrate what theatres can gain from using this method - both in attendance and image. I will deliberate on how theatre can become a metaphorically “hyggelig” place for anybody during times when everybody ought to live faster and faster.

The Anthropocene is gaining recognition as an epoch in Earth’s history in which mankind is changing the environment and the biosphere (Steffen et.al. 2011). Hotel Pro Forma’s visual opera NeoArctic (2016) and Yggdrasil Dance’s dance meditation Siku Aapoq/ Melting Ice (2015) explore how to aesthetically shape the ecological impact on human existence. The article discusses the performances’ impact on potential responses to the climate crisis.

In NeoArctic, human activities have caused “overflow feedback”: a constant flow of digital vistas of pollution, raging weather, temperature rises alternate with the planet’s eternal processes, while underscored by ambience and operatic electro-pop. The images are front-projected onto the stage backdrop to create a literal overflow of the steadfast choir-performers, in which they almost disappear or become ghostly shadows, implying their imminent demise or insignificance on a planetary scale.

Siku Aapoq engages with Greenland’s melting icecap: two dancers, Norwegian and Inuit, interact with a fabric understood as the melting ice, while enveloped in evocative lights, the crackling of glaciers, Inuit chants, ambience, and jazz. The Norwegian and the Inuit take turns enacting the ice, suggesting the interconnectedness with nature of both cultures.

Both performances seem to invite acceptance of inevitable disaster. Yet, human prevalence is implied in the stagings by convergence of past and future in the present, which suggests that the future is still undecided, and survival depends on an ability to respond to the materiality of the environment that we are already entangled in through a profound sense of beauty.

Theoretically, the analyses mainly draw on agential realism (Karen Barad) in order to outline a “para-Anthropo(s)cene aesthetics” that may reach beyond the human and engage spectators in realizing their ethical entanglement and the call for climate action. Considering intentions and reception, and the dystopian nature of the performances, the responses to climate change that the aesthetics may instigate are discussed.

In 2019, a call for a new director for Nordisk Teaterlaboratorium – Odin Teatret was published. This, however, did not mean that the artistic leader of the group theatre Odin Teatret, Eugenio Barba, was to be replaced completely – there is a distinction between the laboratory and the theatre. In this article, we explore the problem of the passing on legacy and tradition from one generation to another in group theatres such as Odin Teatret. We ask: (1) How would it have been possible to continue after such a visionary director retired? (2) Would the next step be continuation or something new? In search for the answers we discuss the history, method, and dramaturgy of Odin Teatret and Barba, as well as the process of generational change in the laboratory, using documents which assess the situation of the organization and analyzing Barba’s theoretical writings. We consider them in terms of transformational leadership theory. In conclusion, we deliberate on possible scenarios of the generational change in group theatres that could provide a balance between keeping the tradition and implementing the new vision. 

Theatre Talks emerged as an audience reception research method in Sweden. In this article I describe the evolution of the method and put it into practical perspectives. At first, Theatre Talks provided extensive insights into the experiences of Stockholm theatre audiences in the 1980s. Those results inspired the inventor of the method, Willmar Sauter, to develop a theatre communications model, which changed the academic discourse on the theatrical communication process. In Australia, Rebecca Scollen successfully applied the method for an audience development projects aimed at non-attenders. In Denmark, Louise Ejgod Hansen noticed that Theatre Talks might access a democratic potential of theatre. All of these effective applications of the method inspired me to look at Theatre Talks as an audience development tool from three combinatory perspectives: (1) marketing – its potential for increased ticket sales and changing the behaviour of the customers, (2) cultural policy – for higher diversity and participation in theatre, and (3) theatrical communication – for improved understanding and better satisfaction from participation in the performance.

The material presented in this book forms part of a research project called Development of Organizational Theatre Systems in EU countries financed by the Polish National Science Centre. The study, carried out between 2013 and 2016, was aimed at describing organizational theatre systems in selected European countries. It began as a project with a Polish perspective on European theatre systems, but quickly expanded into an international group of researchers interested in the topic. This anthology presents the diversity of European systems, as reflected by the composition and work of the group.

Particular attention has been paid to diverse historical, political and social traditions, which affected the theatre systems in question. The development of each system is described in chronological order, supported by comprehensive examination of, for example, cultural policy and various forms of organization, their institutional, administrative and legal structures, as well as different sources of financing and subsidy. The focus of each research contribution is determined by the specific theatre system of each country: its history, political restrictions and cultural characteristics. However, the attempt to capture the complex and multifaceted structure of theatre systems has resulted in some general findings.

The readers may explore this book guided by interest in a certain country, the differences between countries, or the approach to the specific theatre system. Each chapter presents the development of the system with different amount of focus on historical, political, social and cultural conditions. The whole volume demonstrates that in each country the system was shaped in a specific way, dealing with indigenous circumstances, in response to recognized social needs. We hope that some solutions may be inspiring for the future strengthening of artistic institutions in Europe, but it is clear that none of these models are universal and can be transferred directly from one country to another.