Metatheatre and the importance of Estrella in Calderón’s 'La vida es sueño' and its contemporary productions

This essay looks at one of the most neglected characters of the Spanish drama: Estrella in Calderón’s 'La vida es sueño'. It argues that Estrella, as a metaphor of a humble actor and active spectator, is central to the play’s metatheatrical structure and to the reading of 'La vida es sueño' as a type of theatrical manifesto. The importance of Estrella is explored in three different versions of the play created in three different linguistic and cultural contexts: a Spanish source, the 2006 Polish staging directed by Waldemar Zawodziński (based on Jarosław Marek Rymkiewicz’s translation), and the 2008 Irish production directed by Tom Creed (based on Jo Clifford’s translation). By combining textual commentary with analysis of verse structure of the play in all three versions, the essay explores the unique potential that Estrella brings to contemporary theatre. Moreover, the discussion seeks to offer a fresh look at the metatheatrical strategies in the play and shows a renewed importance of verse for understanding and performing 'La vida es sueño' and comedias in general

Krytyczki as activists: On theatre criticism, affect, objectivism and #MeToo in Polish drama schools: Interview with Monika Kwaśniewska

Monika Kwaśniewska is a Polish scholar working as Adjunct at the Theatre and Drama Chair, Jagiellonian University, Kraków, Poland, and editor of Didaskalia. Theatre Journal. In her research she explores contemporary acting in the performative and institutional perspective, institutional critique in theatre and visual arts, and the #MeToo movement in the theatre. In the interview below, she discusses how Polish krytyczki—a feminine and plural form of critic—played an active role in creating a platform for #MeToo in Polish theatre. The interview focuses on the most recent events in Poland that led to an unprecedented avalanche of callouts from Polish state drama schools’ students and graduates. The callouts named leading figures in Polish theatre and film. In exploring Polish theatre training, its system, its complex relationship with the past masters and its response to #MeToo, the conversation tries to signal potential answers to: what do we do now

Puppets, dogs, and vegetarian angels: ecocriticism in Jakub Krofta’s Polish productions

This article explores the work of Czech theatre director Jakub Krofta in the context of ecocriticism. This discussion focuses on Krofta's two productions directed for Polish puppetry theatres and aimed at young audiences: Daszeńka (Teatr Lalka, Warsaw, 2011), based on Karel Čapek's book, and Pacan – historia o miłości (Pacan – a story about love; Wrocławski Teatr Lalek, Wrocław, 2012). My analysis is framed by Greta Gaard's theories on ecopedagogy (GAARD 2009) and Paul Piris's discussion on co-presence between the puppeteer and the puppet (PIRIS 2014). Building on their work, and combining it with performance analyses of both productions, this article explores how Krofta manages interactive relationships between performers, puppets, and spectators so as to engage his audiences with global discussions relating to human/environment relations. Krofta's works achieve this through their exploration of the problematic status of animals in the contemporary world, invitation the renegotiation of relations between humans and animals, and facilitation of various degrees of engagement for both children and adults

Difficult encounter: Polish theatre on the Irish stage between 2004 and 2015

Ten years after Poland has joined the European Union and thousands of Poles arrived in Ireland, has Polish theatre arrived on the Irish stage? The fate of Polish theatre in Ireland has been varied, from Natalia Korczakowska’s 'The Leash' performed and awarded at the 2007 Dublin Fringe Festival, Krystian Lupa’s Factory 2 (Dublin Theatre Festival 2010) described by Sara Keating as “deliberately indulgent and maddening performance” that was simply boring, to Polish Theatre Ireland’s 'Bubble Revolution' (2013) praised for performance and critiqued for lack of clarity. This essay seeks to document the last decade and investigates the reception of professional Polish productions created both in Poland and Ireland and presented in Ireland between 2004 and 2015. Choosing the most contrasting cases and taking into account quantitative data as well as reviews, awards, and funding, the essay investigates the encounter of Polish theatre with Irish audiences

Lockdown verses and anxieties of presence: How Polish theatre rhymed a case for its purpose on the pandemic stage?

Liveness and co-presence are romanticized in Polish theatre as linked to its status as a platform for performances of Polish freedoms. Therefore, the outbreak of COVID-19 and the subsequent decision to close all theatres from March 12, 2020, have created very particular challenges not only to the economic safety and artistic expression of theatre and its artists, but also to its core traditions. The Polish government’s attempts to rewrite the constitution, organize fraud elections and limit women's rights during the lockdown have made the situation even more challenging. This essay discusses how Polish theatre artists used verse form—including Hip-Hop-derived performances—to claim their agency over the new ecologies of theatre-making and engage with socio-political discourses

Memory, Communism, and foreign words in Julia Holewińska’s Foreign Bodies: balancing foreignization and domesticating strategies in a production by Polish Theatre Ireland

This article engages with selected translation strategies undertaken to transfer a Polish play by Julia Holewińska, ‘Ciała Obce’ [Foreign Bodies], into the context of Irish theatre. I look at Polish Theatre Ireland’s production of the play (directed by Lianne O’Shea and presented in Dublin’s Project Arts Centre in 2013), focusing on linguistic and cultural aspects of the translation and, in particular, issues concerning the memories of communism in Poland. The analysis is framed by Lawrence Venuti’s theorisation of translation processes and explores the negotiations and tensions between ‘foreignisation’ and ‘domestication’ in the translating, staging, and presenting of ‘Foreign Bodies’ in Ireland. I propose that by using both strategies to transfer memories of communism in Poland to the Irish stage, the production can facilitate an intercultural discussion on gender in the Polish and Irish contexts and allow multicultural audiences different levels of engagement

“Roughening up of the utterance” or “It’s not all mountains and sheep and Emily Dickinson.”: How contemporary practitioners test boundaries of verse drama?

The start of a new millennium has brought about a resumed interest in verse as a theatrical language through which to engage with contemporary audiences. This essay engages with works in verse and hybrid forms created between 2009 and 2019 and presented predominantly in Ireland and the UK. The discussion stretches across a wide selection of dramatic texts and theatrical performances that test the boundaries of verse drama and its traditions in English-language theatre. These works use verse and verse-like forms, mixing them with crude language, slam-poetry, Hip-Hop, and opera to create a platform for individual, generational, and class stories as well as responses to local and global politics. Verse also appeals to artists engaged in transmedia and intermedia practices that exceed the boundaries of theatre. The works presented draw from opportunities that have arisen from English as a global language in the context of its histories, increased mobility of people, tensions between local and global, digital media, and various cultural traditions. Through text and performance analysis, the essay argues for abandoning the exclusivity of verse drama and looking at verse drama in the broader context of the revived interest of contemporary theatre in verse and its hybrid forms

Circadian Forensics

The main objectives of criminal investigation are to determine the who, the how and the when of the crime. Who was the perpetrator that committed the criminal offense; how did the crime happen; and when or at what time did the crime happen. Currently, there are methods which allow the researchers and investigators to answer the first two questions, the who and the how. The when, however, is still in need of developing reliable and precise tests. Research presented in this thesis aimed at unravelling one of the aspect of the when – what time during the day or night a biological trace was left at the crime scene – by applying the insights from circadian biology to an open forensic problem. The first chapter of this thesis gives a brief introduction into the circadian systems and their involvement with other physiological processes in humans. The second chapter describes research undertaken to determine the utility of miRNA markers miR-142-5p and miR-541, which were previously proposed for forensic time of death determination (Odriozola et al., 2013), for blood stain deposition timing. Contrary, we did not find these particular miRNA markers suitable for estimating blood trace deposition time. In the next chapter, the assessment of expression patterns of genes, that were implied to be rhythmic mostly in animal models or in various human peripheral tissues, in human blood from healthy volunteers subjected to sleep laboratory protocols, is presented. In this study, the rhythmicity of several clock-controlled genes in humans was established, and the most informative ones were subsequently tested to determine their potential to predict time of day for forensic purposes, as reported in the following fourth chapter. The fifth chapter describes a study on the rhythmicity of metabolites tested in human blood samples. In this project metabolites with robust, 24 hour rhythms were identified, and their suitability for blood trace deposition timing was determined. The final chapter provides a general discussion on the research presented in this thesis, including elaboration on ongoing as well as future studies on this subject

Delayed birth of distillable entanglement in the evolution of bound entangled states

The dynamical creation of entanglement between three-level atoms coupled to the common vacuum is investigated. For the class of bound entangled initial states we show that the dynamics of closely separated atoms generates stationary distillable entanglement of asymptotic states. We also find that the effect of delayed sudden birth of distillable entanglement occurs in the case of atoms separated by a distance comparable with the radiation wavelength.Comment: published versio

Students as producers and active partners in enhancing equality and diversity: ‘culturosity’ at Canterbury Christ Church University

Equality and diversity of truths, of opportunity, of outcome, of dignity and of identities lie at the heart of the idea of university (Wolff, 1992, p. 68). However, despite the fact that the UK ‘has well-established equality law and practice’ and the Equality Act 2010 requires universities to implement changes that protect their students and employees from various forms and effects of discrimination, ‘inequality remains, albeit often in more complex and subtle forms than have been understood before’, argues David Ruebain (2012, p. 3). This study contributes to the discussion about equality and diversity practices in the university context by proposing strategies to embed into students’ learning community equality and diversity and subsequent graduate attributes. The case study is the Culturosity Project: an equality and diversity training initiative co-created by Dr Kasia Lech and a group of final-year students and graduates from Drama and Performing Arts programmes and delivered – as a Canterbury Christ Church University Partners in Learning project – to L4 and foundation-year students. The project was first delivered in 2015 and has now become part of student induction at the CCCU Faculty of Arts and Humanities