Krystian Lupa

Krystian Lupa, born on 7 November 1943 in Poland, is a director, playwright, set designer, translator and pedagogue. Having started his studies in physics, he went on to study graphic arts and only later immersed himself in the world of theatre and cinema.

The play Rzéznia (1976), by Slawomir Mrozek, was his first directorial debut. Since then he has staged and produced numerous plays, some based on his texts (Factory 2, Persona. Marilyn and Le Corps de Simone), others adapted from foreign authors (from Chekhov and Dostoyevsky to Bernhard and Rilke), all characterised by a deep interest in the human condition and the setbacks that arise when interacting with the world. With Swinarski, Kantor and Jung as his masters, Lupa developed a unique working method, very organic and demanding of the actors and the stage, later called ‘Laboratory Rehearsals’ by his peers.

His relationship with Kafka began in 2017 with the staging of Proces. A full-length play (about four hours and a half long) based on Kafka's novel of the same name (and other excerpts from his correspondence and diaries), it was first presented to the public on the 15th of November of the same year at the Warsaw Theatre, after which it played in festivals in France, Austria, China and Russia. Regarding the urgency and relevance of the project, Lupa says: ‘Faced with this crisis of European values and the threat posed to individual freedom, we want this performance to be a common voice for the future.’ In early 2024, his play The Emigrants, based on W. G. Sebald, premiered at the Odéon-Théâtre de l'Europe, in what constitutes an “exploration of the human being’s destructive power".