Abiekt uwięziony w języku: Współczesne inscenizacje mitu Fedry w teatrze polskim – Kleczewska, Zadara, Wiśniewski

This article presents a comparative analysis of three contemporary stagings of the myth of Phaedra: by Maja Kleczewska (Teatr Narodowy, Warsaw 2006), Michał Zadara (Narodowy Teatr Stary, Cracow 2006), and Grzegorz Wiśniewski (Teatr Wybrzeże, Gdańsk 2019). The theoretical framework refers to the abject quality of the character of Phaedra and its representation in language. The author analyses the directors’ interventions in literary texts reworking the myth of Phaedra: strategies ranging from multiplication, through modification, to annihilation of the dramatic text. In Kleczewska’s intertextual staging, which juxtaposes different plays addressing the theme, the text and the language become less important than the actors’ physicality. Zadara’s ironic theatre deconstructs the discursive formation of Racine’s classical tragedy, while retaining it as the main subject of the performance. Wiśniewski returns to Rancine’s language, but tries to transcend it, counterbalancing it with quiet, restrained acting, enhanced by strong musical phrases. The three stagings resonate with the concept of the theatre as a laboratory of crisis, here: of the crisis of the abject.