One fateful day, a mysterious parcel adorned with a bow from his beloved’s dress floats down the river, revealing a map. Where does it lead? Will it guide him back to his lost love?

Based on Polish highland legends, ‘Made of Stone’ demonstrates deep parallels with the dramatic and poetic storytelling used by William Shakespeare. Similarly to Shakespeare’s plays, here too, audiences can trace the dramatic journey of the hero, witness his internal transformation and his confrontation with the twists of fate as well as witness universal themes and motifs and the use of language rich with symbols and metaphors.  

Presented by Krakow’s acclaimed street theatre company “Scena Kalejdoskop”.

Suitable for Adults & Children (Recommended for ages 8+)

Tickets (£10/£7): Made of Stone at Stratford Play House event tickets from TicketSource

About Scena Kalejdoskop

Scena Kalejdoskop was established in 2004 in Krakow by actor and director Piotr Kulczyk. The theatre company’s passion and commitment has resulted in several theater hits including a street and open-air spectacle with the participation of actors on stilts entitled “The Heart of Don Juan” – staged in nearly two hundred Polish cities.

Inspired by Shakespeare’s play “The Merchant of Venice”, this mask-making workshop, under the guidance of experienced instructors from Poland, will allow participants to create their own masks and learn techniques such as modelling, painting, and decoration.

The workshops are open to everyone—both literature enthusiasts and those who would like to try their hand at traditional crafts. No prior experience is required, only a willingness to engage in creative work and exploration.

Organised in partnership with the Royal Shakespeare Company, 10:30am-11:30am & 12pm-1pm, Royal Shakespeare Theatre

Tickets: FREE/ booking required

Making Masks Workshop | Royal Shakespeare Company (rsc.org.uk)

Please note an additional FREE Event will follow after the end of the first workshop. At 11:30am the:

Folk Reflections, Walkabout Performance will take place in Bancroft Terrace outside the Royal Shakespeare Theatre 

FREE / no booking required.

11.30am – 12 midday

The performance will give audiences the chance to admire, meet and take a photograph with a group of larger than life puppets (on stilts) wearing colourful, traditional folk dress from different regions of Poland.

Through this performance we would also like to make a contribution to Refugee Week, which takes place this year between the 17th-23rd June 2024 under the theme of ‘Our Home’ – “Home can be a place of refuge, a feeling or a state of mind. It can be found in smells, tastes and sounds. From the clothes we wear to the words we grew up with. It’s in food, music and arts. It’s in our cultures and in our landscapes”. (Refugee Week Website)

The puppets in the Folk Reflections Performance will reflect this theme through their colourful and traditional outfits which will be instantly recognisable to anyone from the Polish community as symbols of their cultural heritage and their ‘Home’ and offer an invitation to reflect on their own migrant journeys to the UK, as well as acting as an opportunity for non-Polish communities in Stratford Upon Avon to interact with and be introduced to Polish culture and the Polish community in Stratford.

Check out What else is included as part of Warwickshire Refugee Week 2024

https://www.warwickshire.gov.uk/refugeeweek2024

A conversation between leading performers, directors and writers, exploring Shakespeare’s unique impact in Poland and some of the revolutionary Polish stagings that have re-imagined his greatest characters and challenged our understanding of the nature of gender, on the stage and in the world.

The conversation will also look at stagings of Shakespeare from the perspective of female directors – in 21st-century theatre, women directors have gained greater visibility and acclaim and many have repeatedly staged Shakespeare’s plays, achieving national and international recognition for their work.

Joining us for the discussion, will be, amongst others, Dame Janet Suzman as well as internationally renowned theatre and opera director Helena Kaut-Howson, who will talk about her revolutionary staging of award-winning actor Kathryn Hunter as King Lear in the 1997 production of the play at the Young Vic when Kathryn became the first English-speaking woman to take on the titular role of King Lear. (Hunter is also known for tackling other great Shakespearean male roles, including Richard III and Timon of Athens.)

Both Dame Janet Suzman and Helena Kaut-Howson will also speak about their extraordinary careers and will discuss the ways in which Shakespeare’s writing about women has released innumerable possibilities for artists’ self-expression that continue to challenge centuries of gender stereotyping and social limitation.

There will also be insight from scholars Professor Tiffany Stern (The Shakespeare Institute), Professor Elizabeth Schafer (Royal Holloway University of London) and Aneta Mancewicz (Royal Holloway University of London), as well as a dramatic performance from actress Hara Yannas of one of Poland’s most recognisable literary texts inspired by Shakespeare, the beautiful and almost forgotten one-woman play, ‘The Death of Ophelia’ written by Stanislaw Wyspianski.

The converstation is organised in partnership with The Shakespeare Institute

Panellists will include: Dame Janet Suzman, Helena Kaut-Howson, Professor Elizabeth Schafer (moderator), Professor Tiffany Stern, Aneta Mancewicz and actress Hara Yannas

3-5 pm, Stratford Town Hall

Tickets, FREE, booking required: TRANSFORMATIONS – Shakespeare’s theatre in Poland and the Woman’s voice (Panel Discussion) at Stratford Town Hall event tickets from TicketSource

Please note that this event may overrun slightly and finish slightly past 5pm.

Join us for an enchanting summer evening exploring Poland’s lively and varied musical tradition through light and lyrical works of some of the country’s greatest composers presented on the piano & violin.

The concert will feature works by Fryderyk Chopin, Henryk Wieniawski, Grażyna Bacewicz and Wojciech Kilar.

They will be performed by talented and established musicians Anna Szałucka (piano) and Jaga Klimaszewska (violin), both of whom have made significant impacts on the international music scene, bringing the richness of Polish musical heritage to audiences around the world.

7pm, followed by a Reception (drinks & canapes)

Stratford Town Hall

* All proceeds from Ticket sales will be donated to The Shakespeare Hospice *

Tickets (£14): https://www.ticketsource.co.uk/whats-on/stratford-upon-avon/stratford-town-hall/from-poland-with-music/2024-06-23/19:00/t-jzpkvee