The aim of this paper is to look at the representation of the storm in selected television versions of Shakespeare's The Tempest . Special attention will be paid to Polish TV productions in the context of other film and telegenic renderings of the play. Of course, the specific nature of the tragicomedy and the position of the sea storm and shipwreck in particular will be a starting point for the discussion of how television aesthetics shapes the representation of storms on the small screen. The following questions will be posited: whether the teleplay draws more on the filmic codes or theatre-oriented ones; what the place of television genres is and how they inform the framing of storms; how the genres relate to the nature of the storms in Shakespeare's (Last) plays. Consequently, one needs to address the unnatural, supernatural and oneiric nature of Shakespeare's Last Plays as well as the status of Prospero's art that make the storm a magic phenomenon, yet one which - in the eyes of Miranda as well as the characters aboard the ship - appears a most realistic, indeed tangibly real element. This leads to the problem of realism in the triad of stage-television-film which will need to be addressed, too: how the producers managed to render this double nature of the reception of the storm by the characters in the play.

The article attempts to address the issue of nudity and eroticism in stage and screen versions of Shakespeare’s plays. Elizabethan theatrical conventions and moral and political censorship of the English Renaissance did not allow for an explicit presentation of naked bodies and sexual interactions on stage; rather, these were relegated to the verbal plane, hence the bawdy language Shakespeare employed on many occasions. Conventions play a significant role also in the present-day, post-1960s and post-sexual revolution era, whereby human sexuality in Western culture is not just alluded to, but discussed and presented in an open manner. Consequently, nudity on stage and screen in versions of Shakespeare’s plays has become more marked and outspoken. Indeed, in both filmic and TV productions as well as stage performances directors and actors more and more willingly have exposed human body and sexuality to the viewer/spectator. My aim is to look at such instances from the perspective of realism and realistic conventions that the three media deploy and the effect nudity/sex can have on the recipient. The conclusion is that theatre is most conventional and stark realism and directness of the message need to be carefully dosed. Similarly to the theatre, television, more specifically television theatre, is, too, a most direct genre, as television is inherently a live medium, the broadcasts of which occur here and now, in the present tense (ideally). Film is markedly different from the two previous forms of art: it is narrated in the past tense, thus creating a distance between what is shown and the viewer, and allowing for more literalness. Naturally, particular cases discussed in the article go beyond these rather simple divisions.

Jan Klata is a director who has been labelled a provocateur and who is considered to hold nothing cultural or national sacred. From the beginning of his artistic career he is said to have challenged authorities: theatrical, ethnic, national, etc. by debunking and questioning prevailing heroic myths and forms. Today, imperceptibly yet steadily, Klata himself becomes an authority and his theatrical productions gradually become classics in the eyes of the new generations of theatre directors and audiences, at the same time inciting and inevitably inviting cultural rebellion ... The article examines Klata’s treatment of theatrical and national authority in his Shakespeare productions, on the one hand, and the image of the director as an authority on the other. All in the light of the theoretical model on authority in theatre, especially in Shakespeare productions, developed by W.B. Worthen.

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The article considers a production of Hamlet by Maja Kleczewska at Teatr Polski in Poznań in the context of formal experimentation as well as its political and social ramifications, which are inextricably intertwined. Both the reasons for and consequences of choosing the sitespecific location of the Old Abattoir in Poznań as well as the lack of the division of the production space into stage and auditorium are analysed, with reference to reception processes, the ontological status of spectators and characters as well as the comments, which the production makes on the political and social situation of Poland and Central Europe in 2019 and 2020, especially immigration and marginalised groups within Central European societies.