Twelfth Night, or What You Will will premiere on Lovrjenac Fort

The second drama premiere of the 74th Dubrovnik Summer Festival is Twelfth Night, or What You Will by Grzegorz Jarzyna and Roman Pawłowski, based on William Shakespeare's play of the same name, and a co-production of the Dubrovnik Summer Festival and the Zagreb Youth Theatre. It will be performed from 21 July to 25 July at 9:30 p.m. on the Lovrjenac Fort.

In Jarzyna's interpretation as a director, Twelfth Night, or What You Will becomes a modernist play about fluid sexual identities fighting for the right to exist in an antiquated, patriarchal world. " Guests are just arriving at the luxury hotel Iliria – the famous aristocratic married couple Olivio and Orsina, Olivio's assistant Mario and the performer Feste, Olivio's aunt Tomassa and her friend, the rich Englishwoman Andrea. This weekend the entire hotel is only theirs, and hotel manager Malvolia and waiter Zoran will make sure they get everything they want. But what they really want is completely different from what they think they want, and it may all be exposed by an uninvited guest – Violx. While preparing for the cross-dress party which is the reason why all the characters have gathered at the Iliria hotel, and with the presence of Violx, they will reveal everything hidden inside them, and everything they knew about love, as well as themselves, will be turned upside down overnight."

In addition to the director Grzegorz Jarzyna, who together with Roman Pawłowski wrote the play’s text, the creative team are costume designer Anna Axer Fijalkowska, set design team AAFGJAP, lighting designer Aleksandr Prowalinski, video projections artist Ivan Marušić-Klif, music composers Marko Levanić and Ivana Starčević, sound engineer Marko Levanić, Šimun Stankov who was in charge of the stage movement, Petra Prša the stage management, and Jelena Kovačič who translated the text of the play from Polish and also did language adaptation.

The ensemble that embodied the roles of protagonists who engage in a risky game based on power and desires consists of: Dado Ćosić in the role of Prince Olivio, later Olivia, Anđela Ramljak as Princess Orsina, later Orsino, Mia Melcher as the non-binary person Violx, later Cesario, Katarina Bistrović Darvaš as the hotel manager Malvolia, Petra Svrtan as the performer Feste, Doris Šarić Kukuljica as Olivio's aunt Tomassa, later Toby, Barbara Prpić as Andrea, later Andrew the tourist, Mateo Videk as Olivio's assistant Mario, later Marija, Toma Medvešek as Zoran the waiter, and DJ and registrar played by Ivana Starčević.

Born in Chorzów in 1968, Grzegorz Jarzyna is one of the most popular Polish theatre directors. He graduated from the Faculty of Philosophy, Jagiellonian University in Krakow, and the Ludwik Solski State Theatre Academy in Krakow, where he studied directing. In 1998 he became the Artistic Director of TR Warszawa, one of the most innovative theatres in Poland. Jarzyna has staged classical dramas reinterpreted in a bold and innovative way, adaptations of famous European novels, contemporary European dramas, as well as operas. His international reputation has been established through invitations to various festivals and guest performances in Europe and all over the world. In 2007 he received one of the most prestigious awards of the German-speaking Europe – the Nestroy Award – for his staging of Medea in Burgtheater Vienna.

Tickets for Twelfth Night, or What You Will are available via the festival website www.dubrovnik-festival.hr or the service www.ulaznice.hr, at the box office in the Festival Palace (Od Sigurate 1) every day from 9:00 a.m. to 9:30 p.m. and in front of the DTS building (Vukovarska St) from Monday to Friday from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.