To Be or Not to Be - Theatre

Show & Culture

Poland, shortly before the outbreak of the Second World War. At the Polski-Theater, Josef Tura plays the leading role in Hamlet. His wife Maria regularly meets a young officer during the “Sein oder Nichtsein” monologue. After the German invasion, Maria’s lover returns as a member of the Polish resistance and asks the company to help eliminate a professor who intends to betray the resistance to the Gestapo. Tura takes on the role of a German officer and the theatre is turned into a Gestapo headquarters. This stage adaptation by Nick Whitby, based on Ernst Lubitsch’s comedy, tells with dark humour and humanity of the power of theatre and humour in dark times.