Polishing Reykjavík

The Third Space between Poland and Iceland

Abstract

After noticing the great interest of the Polish migrants in Polish cultural events in Reykjavík, Ólafur Ásgeirsson saw a niche for his artistic explorations. He created PólíS, a theatre group comprised of Poles and Icelanders, professional and amateur actors. Polish actors to create performances aimed at the Polish minority. PólíS’s second production, Tu jest za drogo (It’s too expensive here), was staged at the Reykjavík City Theatre, a prestigious location for Reykjavík’s cultural life in 2022. This move transgressed social and political boundaries, perhaps even challenging the city’s cultural life and beliefs about the immigrant’s place in the fabric of the city.
In my article, firstly, I position Tu jest za drogo among other strategies for staging performances in foreign languages. Secondly, I place it in a transmigrant context (Glick Schiller 1995), which studies embeddedness in two or more cultures, to explain to whom and why the PólíS’ strategy might appeal. Thirdly, I refer to the concept of third space in theatre (Woodson 2015) to explain the power relations in the creation and reception processes.
My material comes from semi-structured interviews with the PólíS’ members and a City Theatre representative, as well as qualitative analysis of the social media texts and analysis of the PólíS’ play Tu jest za drogo.