„Speak if you can: what are you?”: on the Witches in selected Polish productions of Macbeth

Abstract

The paper focuses on The Witches as they are depicted in Macbeth by William Shakespeare and in three Polish productions of the play from the first decade of the 21st century (directed by Andrzej Wajda, Grzegorz Jarzyna, and Maja Kleczewska). While pointing out an equivocal status of these characters in the tragedy, the author analyses selected scenes which present various ways of interpreting their encounters with the protagonist in contemporary perspective and suggests how literary education in school might benefit from referring to recent productions of Macbeth.