The Golden Yorick, ShakespeareOFF, Journalists’ Award, and the Award of the Polish Shakespeare Society were the awards handed out at the closing gala of the 26th Shakespeare Festival. The award for this year’s went to “Romeos & Julias unplagued. Traumstadt”.

The festival, which lasted for 11 days, is the largest and most prestigious Shakespearan festival in Central and Eastern Europe.

“It is a competition for the best Polish staging of William Shakespeare’s dramatic works and works inspired by the works of William Shakespeare,” said Paulina Popiół, the PR manager of the festival.

The Golden Yorick statuette along with a cash prize of PLN 40,000 (EUR 8,500) went to “Romeos & Julias unplagued. Traumstadt”, performed by the Polish Dance Theater in Poznań and choreographed by Yoshiko Waki.

The prize in the ShakespeareOFF category, along with a prize of PLN 10,000 (EUR 2,100) went to “How Beauteous Mankind Is!” by under the direction of Sławek Krawczyński and Anna Godowska, and performed by the Święto Dreów group.

The jury called this performance “an brilliant dramatic concept, and successfully put on stage by the performers. All aspects of the performance […] merged into a strong and at the same time minimalist theatrical message.”

PLN 5,000 (EUR 1,050) was awarded to Wiktoria Czubaszek for the main role in “Shakespeare Fight Show Arena”.

The Journalists’ Award was granted to the adaptation of “The Taming of the Shrew” directed by Jacek Jabrzyk from the Zagłębie Theatre in Sosnowiec, with the jury particularly praising the performance’s “clear, collective statement” on the rights of marginalised groups.

The “Book of Prospero” was awarded to “Hamlet on the Road” performed by Divadlo Radost from Brno, Czechia. According to the jury, the Czech thespians deserved the award for their putting up “a daringly told story, employing a wide repertoire of theatrical means of expression and showing the power of a story that triumphs over death; for transgressing the framework of tragedy and comedy and revealing the fluidity of the border between art and life.”