What links the Czech Jana and the Polish Juliet? The balcony, that’s for sure. Friendship, too, and at times also Romeo. Though the latter may sometimes take the guise of a deceitful tour guide in sunny Verona or Rome, in cool Prague he is the truthful Ondřej, who plans to stage a new, innovative version of Romeo and Juliet here in Warsaw, in the fine neo-Renaissance Bahr Villa at 16, Róż Avenue. This enterprise gets complicated by a sudden visit from Czechia’s former President, who arrives quite unexpectedly if not impossibly. All this happens as if by magic, thanks to the children’s fertile imagination and the timeless inscription on the Havel Memorial Obelisk in Havel Green, Warsaw, where the Polish Office for Foreigners is also located, by the way. The philosopher and politician Václav Havel’s famous words, “Truth and love must triumph over lies and hatred,” will take on a special meaning and shape in this context. In Havel Green, they will take a musical, hymnic form, despite the persistent intrusive noise of traffic passing in front of the Villa, which will interrupt the spectacle now and again.

The version presented at the Warsaw Autumn emphasises the audio component and the urban soundscape to a greater extent that the first presentation of Art is in the air, which was held on the same spot on 24 June 2025 as part of the #ArtConnections cultural project of the Polish presidency of the Council of the European Union. The main organiser of that Polish presidency premiere in June was Guliwer Puppet Theatre.

Anna Kierkosz