Stage set for Shakespearean playhouse to reopen in Gdansk

By Mary Sibierski Aug 13, 2006, 11:18 GMT

Gdansk, Poland - The great bard himself, William Shakespeare, would no doubt be chuffed.

Nearly 400 years after his death, the stage has been set in the Polish port city of Gdansk for the reconstruction of an Elizabethan theatre, originally built in the early 17th century, to showcase his masterpieces.

Local Shakespearean scholar Professor Jerzy Limon is the driving force behind the Theatrum Gedanense foundation that is reconstructing the theatre, which plans to host an annual Shakespeare festival.

'Gdansk has over a millennium of history,' he notes proudly. Now better known as the hometown of Lech Walesa and birthplace of the anti-communist Solidarity trade union, Gdansk, formerly Danzig, was a bustling Hanseatic League port during the 15th-17th centuries.

Like Amsterdam, it was for centuries home to an affluent class of merchant class with diverse ethnic backgrounds, including Polish, German and Dutch.

'Shakespearean theatre performed by English actors in the Elizabethan theatre was an important part of the city's cultural scene in the 17th century,' Limon says.

A stone's throw from both the Gdansk shipyard, the cradle of Solidarity, and the city's picturesque Hanseatic-style Dlugi Targ pedestrian street, the place where the theatre once stood, is now a derelict car park with a road cutting through it.

But a drawing by a 17th century Gdansk artist reveals the original wood-panel theatre resembled London's famous Fortune Elizabethan playhouse built in north London in 1600 while Shakespeare was still alive.

The Gdansk theatre was later dismantled in the 1800s to make way for housing as space in the growing city became scarce.

Documents in Gdansk's municipal archives reveal Shakespeare was a hit at the venue with troupes of English actors employed there, including his plays in their repertoire for at least 25 seasons in a row, according to Professor Limon.

'Gdansk was an extremely important centre for English actors between 1600 and 1660, and now we have revived this tradition,' he says with pride.

This month, nine Shakespeare companies from across the globe, including countries as far-flung as Iceland and Turkmenistan, performed classics such as Romeo and Juliet, Twelfth Night, Othello and Midsummer Night's Dream at the city's 10th Shakespeare Festival.

None other than the heir to the throne of England, Prince Charles, is patron of both the annual Gdansk Shakespeare Festival and the Theatrum Gedanense reconstruction project.

'This enterprising and imaginative festival has grown spectacularly over the last decade, and is now one of the most celebrated artistic events in Europe,' Prince Charles wrote in a statement for the festival programme on the event that is now the largest of its kind on the continent.

Along with four other Shakespearean festivals in Britain, Hungary, Germany and Romania recently established the European Shakespeare Festivals Network as an education project aimed at bringing the works of the man singularly regarded as the greatest writer of the English language to greater numbers of young Europeans.

Prince Charles is also an ardent fan of plans to reconstruct the Elizabethan playhouse.

'I can only wish all those involved every possible encouragement for this project, and I much look forward to seeing the theatre established on its historical site,' he wrote in the statement from his royal residence in London's Clarence House.

Earlier this year the design of Venetian architect Renato Rizzi won a competition in which 47 companies from 12 countries presented their ideas on how the future Theatrum Gedanense should look.

After 15 years of archaeological excavation, bureaucratic red-tape and hard work, Professor Limon expects to submit the final plans to Gdansk city council for the all-important building licence which will open the door to obtaining European Union funding.

'It took 25 years to rebuild Shakespeare's Globe Theatre in London, so I think the muses have established that it takes a quarter century or so to rebuild such theatres,' Limon says. 'I think we'll manage the job in the next five years or so.'

EU regional funds could cover up to 85 per cent of the theatre's 10-million-dollar price tag. 'We'll have to raise money to cover 15 per cent of the cost of the project ourselves,' the professor says.

He is hopeful corporate sponsorship and a promise by Prince Charles to host a fundraising dinner next year will help raise the curtain on Gdansk's reconstructed Elizabethan playhouse soon.

For more information, please visit the Theatrum Gedanense website at: http://www.teatr-szekspir.gda.pl.