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★ By bringing together classical and modern texts, Warlikowski seeks to shed light on the ambiguous and sombre history of sacrifice, and self-sacrifice - giving up one’s life for another - in particular. Stories of mythological characters ruled by Fate are complemented and reflected in twentieth-century experience with its helplessness in the face of the Holocaust. In the act of sacrifice the executioner becomes no less important than the victim, Warlikowski studies various aspects of sacrifice, setting the enforced sacrifice of

Iphigenia against Alcestis’ voluntary offering up of her life to save her husband. But he raises doubts as to the "sanctity” of voluntary sacrifice. For all the grand theories of killing that executioners construct when trying to justify their actions, their talk about "following orders," their invoking of historical necessity, we still find it difficult to forgive them. The issue of guilt and forgiveness in Warlikowski's production is complemented by an unexpected theme; that of vengeance.

And that accounts for the presence of Clytemnestra and Orestes, as well as of Agamemnon, who speaks in phrases taken from Litteli. Joanna Derkaczew, Gazeta Wyborcza

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