This thesis discusses the work of theatre director Krzysztof Warlikowski, which holds an important place within Polish and world theatre, although it remains little known in the UK. It argues that that existing approaches to Warlikowski’s theatre are inadequate as they focus too much on the perspective of an interpreter of productions who decodes the meaning of the performance. Instead Warlikowki’s work should be approached from the perspective of an observer of the complex creative processes that lead to performance and determine its relationship with the audience. The connection between actors and spectators takes the form of an ‘encounter’ that offers a particular experience of theatregoing. It aims to challenge the existing customs of spectatorship and is based on destabilising and violating the sense of safety of both actors and spectators while expanding their experience of performance beyond the ‘here and now’.This thesis asks questions about the distinctive conditions that make possible the type of encounter that lies at the heart of Warlikowski’s oeuvre and distinguishes it from Polish repertory theatre. The theoretical framework of ‘intertheatricality’ facilitates identification of the matrix of elements that inform this encounter. These elements are constituted by: 1.The strategies that have led Warlikowski to become a successful director and enabled him to create a new way of theatre-making and communication with audience; 2. The complex processes of the creation of his ensemble of actors; 3. The family-like setting and the collaborative nature of rehearsals; 4. The status of actors who become the co-authors of performance and their idiosyncratic involvement in the creation of shows that cross the borders between work and life; and finally, 5. The role of the audience that becomes an integral element of the performance making process. Seeing Warlikowski’s work from the perspective of performance as event shows it not as a static and completed artefact, but as a fleeting, transient process that is open to changes and resonates with the outside world. Through its focus on creative processes, this approach sheds new light on the theatre of Warlikowski. It shows how he integrates the actors and audience into his performance making process, and also helps to demonstrate his impact on the status of audience within Polish mainstream theatre post-1989.

Le sujet posé a pour but d’identifier le théâtre importé de Pologne et de déchiffrer le rôle qu’il joue dans la vie théâtrale française ainsi que dans le contexte culturel de la France. La présence du théâtre polonais de 1989 à nos jours en France est conditionnée par plusieurs facteurs : les relations historiques et culturelles entre les deux pays, l'activité des institutions et des personnes médiatrices, la vie théâtrale française et ses composantes. Jerzy Grotowski et Tadeusz Kantor continuent à garder leur importance pour le milieu théâtral français. Il se crée dans la conscience du spectateur/critique français une opinion que le théâtre polonais, comme celui de Kantor et de Grotowski, est un endroit laboratoire, où le temps du spectacle est sacré. Ce sont les théâtres d'art de Krystian Lupa et de Krzysztof Warlikowski qui s'avèrent de nouvelles révélations artistiques. Leurs œuvres démontrent la complexité de l'homme. Leur réception s'élargit sur les stages, les créations avec les artistes français et les mises en scène d'opéra pour Warlikowski. Cependant, ces metteurs en scène viennent en France très rarement avec les adaptations d’œuvres dramatiques polonaises. Les auteurs dramatiques polonais ont donc une certaine réception en France, surtout Witold Gombrowicz, Stanisław Witkiewicz, Sławomir Mrożek qui passe par le chemin des traductions et des mises en scène proposées par des artistes français. La lecture de l'autre à travers le théâtre est supposée rester une lecture partielle, le récepteur n'ayant pas le même vécu historique que l'objet perçu. Néanmoins, malgré sa partialité, elle jette une nouvelle lumière sur le théâtre polonais. / This study represents an attempt to identify the Polish theater brought to France since 1989 and to analyse the role it currently plays in contemporary theatre in France as well as in the broader cultural context. Its very presence depends on several factors: historical and cultural relations between the two countries, related institutional and individual activity, as well as the French theatrical life itself and its components.Jerzy Grotowski and Tadeusz Kantor continue to maintain their iconic status in the French theater community. There is a well-rooted understanding of the Polish theater as an experimental space (by French theatergoers and critics alike and accomplished precisely through Kantor's and Grotowski's impact), where bearing witness to on-stage action is a sacred. Krystian Lupa's and Krzysztof Warlikowski's art theater appears to be the latest to date of artistic discoveries. Their works are seen as primarily dealing with complexities of human nature. What follows are internships, joint projects with collaborating French artists and opera productions (Warlikowski). Simultaneously these very same stage directors rarely bring their own adaptations of Polish drama repertoire to France.However, Polish playwrights in general do generate interest. This is particularly true for Witold Gombrowicz, Stanisław Witkiewicz, Sławomir Mrożek, but tends to happen another way through French translated and staged versions.Understanding the other through theater is often assumed to be an incomplete reading, as the reader does not have the same baggage of lived history as the object of his or her perception. Yet despite this obvious bias, this reading sheds a new light on the Polish theater.

La thèse propose une lecture comparée de l’emploi du grotesque dans les théâtres français, polonais, belge francophone, germanophone, italien et espagnol. L’analyse comparée des écritures dramatiques comme du discours littéraire permet de dégager les spécificités du grotesque et de sa réception dans les diverses aires culturelles. La première partie est consacrée à la mise en place théorique de la notion dans les arts, des arts décoratifs à l’art dramatique, de la Renaissance au vingtième siècle. Une attention particulière est portée à la danse grotesque, jusque-là peu étudiée, ainsi qu’aux divergences entre les discours critiques occidental et oriental. La seconde partie constitue le cœur du travail par l’étude comparée des procédés grotesques selon trois axes : la déformation, la démesure et l’hybridité. Celle-ci permet de mettre en valeur les fonctions dramatiques de l’emploi de la marionnette et de la pantomime ainsi que l’inspiration des arts du cirque, de la foire et du cabaret. La troisième partie analyse l’hypothèse du genre dramatique grotesque en Europe au vingtième siècle. Une fois établi le cadre théorique de la réflexion sur le genre et au regard de la production dramatique la plus contemporaine, l’étude s’achève sur la détermination de la place du grotesque dans la création artistique comme dans la critique littéraire actuelle. En remettant en cause la périodisation traditionnelle du théâtre européen du siècle dernier, la thèse entend rendre sa place au grotesque dans la critique dramatique contemporaine comme mise en forme du difforme. / This thesis proposes a comparative reading of the use of grotesque in French, Polish, French-speaking Belgian, German-speaking Italian and Spanish theatre so as to determinate the specificities of the grotesque and its reception in different cultural areas. It focuses in the first part on the theory of the notion in arts, from decorative to dramatic art, from Renaissance to the twentieth century. Special attention is given to the grotesque dance, which has been thus far insufficiently studied, and to the discrepancies between western and eastern critical discourses. The comparative analysis of the grotesque is conducted along three axes: deformation, excessiveness and hybridity. It emphasises the function of marionette, pantomime and the inspiration of circus, carnival and cabaret. The last part of the thesis concentrates on the hypothesis of a grotesque dramatic genre in Europe in twentieth century. Once established the theoretical basis of the reflexion upon genre, and in view of contemporary dramatic production, the thesis closes with the determination of the place of the grotesque in the creation and in the criticism. By calling into question traditional periodisation of European twentieth theatre, this thesis aims at giving its place to the grotesque in contemporary dramatic criticism as the shaping of the misshapen.