Born in 1962 in Szczecin. One of the most prominent European directors of his generation. In collaboration with scenic designer Malgorzata Szczesniak, Warlikowski creates outstanding theatrical images. Through his work process, he leads his actors to reach the deepest layers of their creativity. He has directed over forty theatre and opera productions in Poland and abroad: in Israel, Italy, France, Germany and Holland.  He completed his studies at the Jagiellonian University, Theatre Academy in Krakow and at the Sorbonne University as an assistant to Krystian Lupa, Giorgio Strehler, Ingmar Bergman, and Peter Brook.

He stages with equal passion Greek drama (Electra, The Bacchae), Shakespeare (The Tempest, Hamlet, Macbeth, The Twelfth Night, The Winter's Tale, The Taming of The Shrew), and contemporary drama (Bernard-Marie Koltès, Hanna Krall, Sarah Kane, Hanoch Levin). Cleansed (2001), which has received international acclaim, is a moving poetic discourse about cruelty and love saving humanity  from  total destruction.

“I fear Sarah Kane’s text [Cleansed] and I fear Krzysztof Warlikowski’s performance,” writes Piotr Gruszczynski in The Patricides (published by W.A.B., Warsaw 2003). “They are both supreme and unimaginable, as terrifying as a glaze upon a dark abyss, petrifying. What is left? To return by Ariadne’s light clue to the beginning of performance, to the amorous monologue of reduced chorus (or maybe fate?). Or maybe to believe in the performance’s clear message, […]of cleansing done by the most cruel of methods and the most radical means. But can we really clean ourselves differently nowadays? The armour of hypocrisy and self-content can be only ripped off through theatre that pierces the skin. Warlikowski managed to cause poetic paralysis. A physical poetic paralysis. The actors are extraordinary, all of them. Warlikowski brought them to a state of deep participation in shared experience, led them through different levels of consciousness with intensity, allowing the audience to follow. Precisely and without ‘living out.’ Coldly and sharply. Like a razor.”

Warlikowski collaborated with TR Warszawa theatre for 10 years, beginning in 1999. He also directed at the Stary Teatr in Krakow, Teatr Wspolczesny in Wroclaw and Teatr Nowy and Teatr Polski theatres in Poznan. In October 2008, he founded a new company together with a group of his closest collaborators, called Nowy Teatr (New Theatre). He also directs for opera (Don Carlos, Iphigenia in Tauris, Ubu Rex, Woyzeck, Eugenie Onegin, Medea).

Warlikowski is the recipient of numerous awards, including Polityka Weekly's Passport for 2003; the French Order of the Cavalier of Art and Literature in 2004; a Konrad Swinarski Award from Teatr  magazine for his production of Angels in America in 2007; the French Association of Theatre Critics award; and the European prize of New Theatrical Realities.

For a decade, since 1999, Warlikowski was a collaborator of TR Warsaw. He worked also with Teatry Stary in Cracov, Teatr Wspolczesny in Wroclaw and Teatr Nowy and Polski in Poznan. In October 2008 Warlikowski, together with a group of collaborators, opened his own theater, Teatr Nowy.

For more information, visit www.nowyteatr.org