{"id":4315,"date":"2026-09-18T07:37:44","date_gmt":"2026-09-18T07:37:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/odinteatret.org\/?p=4315"},"modified":"2026-09-21T15:51:46","modified_gmt":"2026-09-21T15:51:46","slug":"hamlets-clouds-chmury-hamleta-wroclaw-9-dec","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/odinteatret.org\/index.php\/2026\/09\/18\/hamlets-clouds-chmury-hamleta-wroclaw-9-dec\/","title":{"rendered":"Hamlet&#8217;s clouds &#8211; chmury hamleta &#8211; wroclaw (9 dec.)"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"https:\/\/grotowski-institute.pl\/wydarzenia\/chmury-hamleta\/\">Chmury Hamleta<\/a><br>Spektakl Odin Teatret w re\u017c. Eugenia Barby<br>W ramach \u201eMosty zamiast mur\u00f3w. Jubileusz 90-lecia Eugenia Barby\u201d<br>pt., sob. 9\u201310.10.2026, 19:00<br>The Grotowski Institute, Na Grobli Studio, Na Grobli Street 30-32<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"https:\/\/grotowski-institute.pl\/\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/grotowski-institute.pl\/wp-admin\/images\/w-logo-blue.png\" srcset=\"https:\/\/grotowski-institute.pl\/wp-admin\/images\/w-logo-blue.png 2x\" width=\"32\" height=\"32\" alt=\"\">Instytut im. Jerzego Grotowskiego<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"https:\/\/grotowski-institute.pl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/banner-2.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/grotowski-institute.pl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/banner-2.jpg\" alt=\"Hamlet's Clouds\"><\/a>Photo from the performance of &#8220;Hamlet&#8217;s Clouds&#8221;, photo by Stefano di Buduo<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Eugenio Barba reads &#8220;Hamlet&#8221; through Shakespeare&#8217;s biography. In 1596, at the age of eleven, the playwright&#8217;s only son, Hamnet, dies, estranged from his father, who performs in London theaters. Five years later, Shakespeare&#8217;s father dies. It was during this period of mourning that he wrote &#8220;The Tragical History of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark.&#8221; The connection between Hamnet and Hamlet (in the irregular spelling of the era, the names Hamnet and Hamlet were used interchangeably) has spawned numerous scholarly books. In this story, Barba is most interested in the ambivalent father-son relationship and the question of inheritance: tradition, obligation, trauma. The director sets Shakespeare&#8217;s play in a contemporary world marked by wars, migration, and climate catastrophe. He questions what legacy we have received from our fathers and considers what we will pass on to our children. The play is dedicated to &#8220;Hamnet and Young People Without a Future.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Text: Eugenio Barba and excerpts from &#8220;Hamlet&#8221; by William Shakespeare<br>Dramaturgy and direction: Eugenio Barba<br>Cast: Antonia Cioaz\u0103, Else Marie Laukvik, Jakob Nielsen, Rina Skeel, Ulrik&nbsp; Skeel, Julia Varley<br>Lighting, video and poster design: Stefano Di Buduo<br>Film consultation: Claudio Coloberti<br>Puppetry: Fabio Butera<br>Costumes: Odin Teatret<br>Stage architecture: Odin Teatret<br>Technical director: Knud Erik Knudsen<br>Assistant directors: Gregorio Amicuzi and Julia Varley<br>Production: Odin Teatret (Denmark), Th\u00e9\u00e2tre du Soleil (France), Emilia Romagna, Teatro and Tieffe Teatro Milano (Italy)<br>Premiere: October 10, 2024<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/grotowski-institute.pl\/wydarzenia\/chmury-hamleta\/#tab0\">Director<\/a><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/grotowski-institute.pl\/wydarzenia\/chmury-hamleta\/#tab1\">Ensemble\/Actors and actresses<\/a><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/grotowski-institute.pl\/wydarzenia\/chmury-hamleta\/#tab2\">Tickets<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"alignleft is-resized\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/grotowski-institute.pl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/bio_eugenio_Barba.jpg\" alt=\"Eugenio Barba, photo: Francesco Galli\" class=\"wp-image-30628\" style=\"aspect-ratio:1;width:150px;height:auto\" title=\"Eugenio Barba, photo: Francesco Galli\"\/><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Eugenio Barba<\/strong> was born in Brindisi, Italy, in 1936 and grew up in the town of Gallipoli. After the death of his fascist father, his family&#8217;s socio-economic situation changed dramatically. Initially, he wanted to follow in his father&#8217;s footsteps and become an officer, attending high school at the Nunziatella Military School in Naples. However, in 1954, he abandoned this ambition and emigrated to Norway, where he worked as a welder in a mechanical workshop for four years and then as a sailor on a Norwegian merchant ship for two years. At the same time, he graduated from the University of Oslo, earning degrees in French and Norwegian literature and religious history <em>.<\/em> In 1960, he spent six months on a kibbutz in Israel.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In 1961, he received a UNESCO scholarship and began studying directing at the State Drama School in Warsaw. After a year, he interrupted his studies and moved to Opole, where from 1962 to 1964 he was an assistant to Jerzy Grotowski \u2013 a director three years his senior who questioned the legacy of Western theatre. He participated in the activities of the Theatre of 13 Rows, which was viewed with disfavor by the communist authorities. He disseminated knowledge of Jerzy Grotowski&#8217;s original, subversive work by publishing articles and essays in France, Italy, Scandinavia, and the United States. In 1965, his book about Grotowski, &#8220;Alla ricerca del teatro perduto. Una proposta dell&#8217;avanguardia polacca&#8221; (In Search of a Lost Theatre. A Proposal from the Polish Avant-Garde), was published in Italy and Hungary.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In 1963, he traveled to India to study the then-unknown theatre form of Kathakali. He wrote an essay on it that was published in Italy, France, the United States, and Denmark.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">After being expelled from Poland by the communist authorities, he returned to Oslo, where in October 1964, together with four young people who had been rejected from the National Theatre School, he founded Odin Teatret. In its early days, the company operated as an amateur theatre, and Barba and the actors developed a rigorous system of acting practices, known as training, based on physical and vocal exercises. These practices became a benchmark after 1968, when a new culture of theatre companies emerged worldwide.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In 1966, the Danish town of Holstebro in Jutland invited Barba to live there and run a theater. The Holstebro authorities wanted a theater, but they lacked the funds to maintain it and did not have a theater building. Barba created a theater center on a former farm located a mile and a half kilometers from town, transforming a stable into a black room with no division between stage and audience. This was the beginning of the first &#8220;black box,&#8221; and Barba called his company the &#8220;inter-Scandinavian theater laboratory&#8221; Odin Teatret. Although not all the actors, hailing from Sweden, Norway, Finland, and Denmark, were able to connect with the audience, Odin Teatret&#8217;s performances were well-received. The company gained international recognition in 1969 after a European tour with the production of &#8220;Ferai,&#8221; which was performed at venues including the Theatre of Nations festival in Paris, the Venice Biennale, and the BITEF festival in Belgrade.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Over the course of more than sixty years, Barba and the Odin Teatret laboratory have become a legend in contemporary theatre. Together, the director and actors have developed ways to share their experiences with others, organizing intensive theoretical and practical seminars, creating films about teaching actor\/dancer craft in various traditions, publishing the quarterly &#8220;Teatrets Teori og Teknikk&#8221; (Teatrets Teori og Teknikk), and publishing books, including Jerzy Grotowski&#8217;s &#8220;Towards a Poor Theatre,&#8221; edited by Barba.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Since arriving in Holstebro in 1966, Barba has given the residents of this small provincial town the opportunity to discover theatre, creating a unique meeting place to which he has invited numerous artists, including Jerzy Grotowski, the Living Theatre, La MaMa Ellen Stewart, and Joseph Chaikin with the Open Theatre, as well as Etienne Decroux and Jacques Lecoq. He coordinated the first international tour of Dario Fo and Franca Rame&#8217;s &#8220;La signora \u00e8 da buttare,&#8221; invited Luca Ronconi with &#8220;Orlando Furioso&#8221; after its success at the Spoleto Festival, and hosted Jean-Louis Barrault and his wife, Madeleine Renaud, after they were evicted from the Od\u00e9on Theatre in Paris. In the early 1970s, performances and workshops with Javanese, Balinese, Japanese and Indian theatre and dance companies attracted actors, directors and researchers from all over the world to Holstebro, which led to the creation of intercultural theatre a decade later.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In 1974, Barba left his refuge in Holstebro and moved Odin Teatret to Carpignano, a village in Salento, about twenty kilometers from Gallipoli. For five months, he and his actors worked outdoors and experimented with &#8220;barter&#8221;\u2014an exchange between the theater group and the local population. Barter is a structure for exchanging experiences and traditions, in which cultural and professional identity is expressed through song, dance, storytelling, food preparation, and the imitation of ceremonies that had fallen into oblivion. Among them, the &#8220;festa de lu mieru&#8221; in Carpignano, which was &#8220;revived&#8221; during barter. In subsequent years, thanks to the involvement of the youth of Carpignano, a revival of folk traditions\u2014cuisine, music, dance, and song\u2014took place in other villages in the Salento region, culminating in the Festa de la Taranta in Melpignano.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Barba and Odin Teatret demonstrated the potential of barter as a tool for bringing together diverse communities in the area of \u200b\u200b&#8221;culture without theater&#8221; at the Venice Biennale in 1975. In subsequent years, bartering spread to many communities in Holstebro \u2013 barracks, hospitals, shops, churches, schools, and sports clubs. Thus, the Festuge festival, or Festive Week, was born, during which, for nine days and nights, representatives of Holstebro&#8217;s various professions, occupations, religions, generations, and ethnic groups showcase their &#8220;diversity&#8221; and work culture.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In 1976, Barba dedicated himself to building networks of encounters and collaborations between theater groups ignored by official culture. The &#8220;Third Theater&#8221; became a component of contemporary theater, developed outside of institutional systems. A long stay in Latin America and Asia, during which he encountered &#8220;nameless&#8221; theaters and groups operating outside major cities, allowed Barba to discover a performative culture whose working system resembled that of Odin Teatret: not the First Theater, a guarantor of a glorious tradition, nor the Second Theater, focused on experimentation and research, but the Third Theater, socially engaged and sensitive to ethical issues. In 1976, Barba organized the first meeting of Third Theater groups during the BITEF Festival in Belgrade, initiating a tradition that continues to this day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In 1980, he founded the International School of Theatre Anthropology (ISTA). Together with a group of Asian and Western masters, dancers and actors, scientists, and anthropologists, Barba led a series of practical, comparative studies during seventeen ISTA sessions (the last one took place during the Budapest Theatre Olympics in 2023). The results of these studies led to the definition of the field of theatre anthropology and its most important concept \u2013 &#8220;pre-expressivity,&#8221; or the principles of stage presence. While the stage presence of actors and dancers takes different forms, the principles of their impact on the audience&#8217;s nervous system and mind are the same in both cases.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In 2002, in collaboration with Aarhus University, Barba inaugurated the Holstebro Centre for Theatre Laboratory Studies. Numerous international meetings, seminars, publications, and a Summer School formed the core of this collaboration.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">A fundamental element of Barba and Odin Teatret&#8217;s autonomous cultural policy are the performances \u2013 87 by 2026 \u2013 created by Barba with the Odin Teatret&#8217;s loyal actors and the intercultural ensemble Theatrum Mundi, and presented in 72 countries at countless festivals and venues &#8220;without theatre.&#8221; Their creation \u2013 a process that in some cases takes over two years \u2013 is proof that a different system of theatre creation can exist, one in which actors, technicians, and collaborators ensure the continuity and development of an artistic community whose members &#8220;specialize in not having specialization&#8221; \u2013 not only creating performances but also interacting with non-theatre communities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Eugenio Barba serves on the editorial boards of international journals such as TDR \u2013 The Drama Review, Performance Research, New Theatre Quarterly, and Teatro e Storia. He has published 25 books and numerous essays, translated into nearly 30 languages. His artistic research and the study of theatre anthropology have been recognized with honorary doctorates from the universities of Aarhus, Ayacucho, Bologna, Havana, Warsaw, Plymouth, Hong Kong, Buenos Aires, Tallinn, Cluj-Napoca, Edinburgh, Brno, Shanghai, the Peloponnese, and Bucharest.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">He is the recipient of numerous international awards, including the &#8220;Reconnaissance de M\u00e9rite Scientifique&#8221; from the University of Montreal, the Sonning Prize from the University of Copenhagen, the Mexican Critics&#8217; Prize, the International Luigi Pirandello Prize, the Gloria Artis Gold Medal for Merit to Culture, the Atahualpa del Cioppo Award from the Artes Escenicas International Festival in Montevideo, the Thalia Award from the International Association of Theatre Critics (IATC), and the Medal of Honor from the City of Athens. He also received the Danish Academy Award in 1976 and the Queen&#8217;s Cross of Denmark in 2000. In 2013, the Danish Directors&#8217; Association honored him with the Lifetime Achievement Award, and the Danish state awarded him a lifetime annuity for artistic services to the nation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In 2020, together with actress Julia Varley, he founded the Barba Varley Foundation in Italy, supporting the &#8220;nameless&#8221; \u2013 individuals and groups operating under disadvantaged conditions within and outside the theater. As part of the &#8220;Living Archive: Floating Islands&#8221; (LAFLIS) project, he donated his collection, including the book collection, to the Bernardini Library in Lecce. The Barba Varley Foundation established a scientific and artistic collaboration with the University of Roma Tre, culminating in a series of lectures by Eugenia Barba and Julia Varley as visiting professors in 2022. As a continuation of this collaboration, the METIS Winter School was organized at the Teatro Potlach in Fara Sabina, the first three sessions of which were devoted to improvisation (March 2024), dramaturgy (March 2025), and artistic and political coherence (April 2026).&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Among the artists who had a significant influence on the history of theatre in the second half of the 20th century, Barba was the only one who was innovative in all areas of theatre culture: artistic creation, theoretical reflection, the transfer of professional knowledge, work on historical memory, scientific research and the use of theatre in various social contexts and as a transcultural tool for building relationships between different cultures and ethnic groups.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The following publications by Eugenia Barba have been published in Polish: &#8220;The Land of Ashes and Diamonds. My Apprenticeship in Poland and 26 Letters from Jerzy Grotowski to Eugenia Barba&#8221; (The Grotowski Centre, Wroc\u0142aw 2001), &#8220;Theatre. Loneliness, Craft, Rebellion&#8221; (Institute of Polish Culture, Warsaw 2003), &#8220;The Secret Art of the Actor. Dictionary of Theatre Anthropology&#8221; (edited with Nicola Savares) (The Grotowski Centre, Wroc\u0142aw 2005), and &#8220;Paper Canoe. A Treatise on Theatre Anthropology&#8221; (The Grotowski Institute, Wroc\u0142aw 2007). In 2014, to mark the company&#8217;s fiftieth anniversary, the Grotowski Institute published the book &#8220;A Thousand and One Nights. The Connections of Odin Teatret with Poland.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Relationships of Eugenia Barba and Odin Teatret with Jerzy Grotowski and the Laboratory Theatre (1961\u20131998); <a href=\"https:\/\/grotowski.net\/narzedziownia\/kalendaria\/zwiazki-eugenia-barby-i-odin-teatret-z-jerzym-grotowskim-i-teatrem-laborato\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">https:\/\/grotowski.net\/narzedziownia\/kalendaria\/zwiazki-eugenia-barby-i-odin-teatret-z-jerzym-grotowskim-i-teatrem-laborato<\/a>\u00a0<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Relationships of Eugenia Barba and Odin Teatret with the Grotowski Centre and Institute (1991\u20132017); <a href=\"https:\/\/grotowski.net\/narzedziownia\/kalendaria\/zwiazki-eugenia-barby-i-odin-teatret-z-osrodkiem-i-instytutem-grotowskiego\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">https:\/\/grotowski.net\/narzedziownia\/kalendaria\/zwiazki-eugenia-barby-i-odin-teatret-z-osrodkiem-i-instytutem-grotowskiego<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-wp-embed is-provider-instytut-im-jerzego-grotowskiego wp-block-embed-instytut-im-jerzego-grotowskiego\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<blockquote class=\"wp-embedded-content\" data-secret=\"NgRkFoLeag\"><a href=\"https:\/\/grotowski-institute.pl\/wydarzenia\/chmury-hamleta\/\">Chmury Hamleta<\/a><\/blockquote><iframe loading=\"lazy\" class=\"wp-embedded-content\" sandbox=\"allow-scripts\" security=\"restricted\" style=\"position: absolute; visibility: hidden;\" title=\"\u201cChmury Hamleta\u201d \u2014 Instytut im. Jerzego Grotowskiego\" src=\"https:\/\/grotowski-institute.pl\/wydarzenia\/chmury-hamleta\/embed\/#?secret=NgRkFoLeag\" data-secret=\"NgRkFoLeag\" width=\"600\" height=\"338\" frameborder=\"0\" marginwidth=\"0\" marginheight=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\"><\/iframe>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>WROLAW \u2013 &#8220;Chmury Hamleta&#8221;, Odin Teatret performance at The Grotowski Institute<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4316,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[10,5,4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4315","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-news-activities","category-performances-workshops"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/odinteatret.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4315","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/odinteatret.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/odinteatret.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/odinteatret.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/odinteatret.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4315"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/odinteatret.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4315\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4320,"href":"https:\/\/odinteatret.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4315\/revisions\/4320"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/odinteatret.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4316"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/odinteatret.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4315"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/odinteatret.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4315"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/odinteatret.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4315"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}