Existing Within and Beyond Time: «Capri—the Island of Fugitives» by Krystian Lupa

Abstract

The proposed article ponders upon Krystian Lupa’s Capri—the Island of Fugitives (2019), an original production staged at the Powszechny Theatre in Warsaw that brings together two of Curzio Malaparte’s prose books: Kaputt (1944) and The Skin (1949). By focusing on the parts of the production that adapt Kaputt, the article scrutinizes scenes produced by the live performance and the virtual projections in order to describe and explain how theatrical expression is enriched by such a juxtaposition. This analysis uses the theoretical frameworks of unnatural narratology (Jan Alber et al.), postdramatic durational aesthetics (Hans-Thies Lehmann), and the idea of the virtual double (Matthew Causey). The primary argument relies on the specific temporality emerging from the Lupa’s performance that enables spectators to feel existence within and beyond time. Furthermore, the study investigates the overarching idea of the performance, recognized by the strategy of foregrounding the thematic that oscillates within the problematics of human cruelty.