Images of Death in Agata Duda-Gracz’s Variation on The Tempest
Images of Death in Agata Duda-Gracz’s Variation on The Tempest

Summary/Abstract: The article presents an interpretation of Po Burzy Szekspira, Agata Duda-Gracz’s adaptation of Shakespeare’s The Tempest, as a play focused on the topic of death. The key feature of Duda-Gracz’s theatre is authorial scenography, in which the visual metaphor is the main vehicle of meaning, not less important than the text. Her variation on Shakespeare’s late drama is a story about unhappy life that results in frustration and desire for revenge, with death images being the most crucial elements of stage design, generated by amplifying the motifs of death found in The Tempest. Although Duda-Gracz concentrates mostly on individual suffering and personal failures, many stage design metaphors activate our collective traumas as well. Duda-Gracz’s play is an interesting example of how today’s theatre uses Shakespeare to deal with our fears, including the basic one – the fear of death.

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