Difficult encounter: Polish theatre on the Irish stage between 2004 and 2015

Ten years after Poland has joined the European Union and thousands of Poles arrived in Ireland, has Polish theatre arrived on the Irish stage? The fate of Polish theatre in Ireland has been varied, from Natalia Korczakowska’s 'The Leash' performed and awarded at the 2007 Dublin Fringe Festival, Krystian Lupa’s Factory 2 (Dublin Theatre Festival 2010) described by Sara Keating as “deliberately indulgent and maddening performance” that was simply boring, to Polish Theatre Ireland’s 'Bubble Revolution' (2013) praised for performance and critiqued for lack of clarity. This essay seeks to document the last decade and investigates the reception of professional Polish productions created both in Poland and Ireland and presented in Ireland between 2004 and 2015. Choosing the most contrasting cases and taking into account quantitative data as well as reviews, awards, and funding, the essay investigates the encounter of Polish theatre with Irish audiences