A scene from Krum, to be performed in Polish with English and French surtitles, at the National Arts Centre. (Stefan Okolowicz)

The next play at the French language theatre of the National Arts Centre in Ottawa will not be in French, but in Polish with English and French surtitles.

The play, Krum, will be directed by the leading ambassador of Polish theatre, Krzysztof Warlikowski, and is his adaptation of a play by an Israeli playwright.

It's a departure for the NAC French theatre, introduced by artistic director Wajdi Mouawad in an effort to bring international flavour to Ottawa theatre.

Mouawad, the Quebec director and playwright of the critically acclaimed Scorched, said he asked himself how he could make a mark on Ottawa's French theatre scene.

"What could I bring to the Théâtre français that reflected my own outlook?" he said in an interview with CBC News.

"I think about how the world is changing. We're not in 1989, or 1968. We have to choose between [closing] the window — to be happy always within our [artistic] family, forgetting the world — or opening the window," he said.

Mouawad's vision is to include one foreign language play in each of his seasons at the National Arts Centre and he hopes whoever succeeds him will do the same.

He acknowledges this policy will involve confronting the "collective sadness" of the world, but believes it makes for "powerful theatre."

Mouawad was born in Lebanon, speaks Arabic first and French second.

'Poetic theatre'

He said Poland's Warlikowski is one of his favourite playwrights, an intelligent and sensitive artist and an amazing director.

"It's very poetic theatre. And always you understand what's on the stage, and always you are surprised," Mouawad said.

Warlikowsk is also famous for saying there's no point to theatre that "doesn't make you uneasy."

The play, Krum, is about a man who returns to his unidentified home city, after a period away. There the people get married, live their lives and die, but they're convinced that somehow they've missed out and that life is better elsewhere.

It was written originally in Hebrew by the late Israeli playwright Hanokh Levin.

Mouawad said audiences are used to surtitles at the opera and subtitles on movies, so he believes they'll adapt.

"It's a big thing when you see it for the first time, but two days after you don't remember if you saw the play in French or in English or in Polish," he said.

Krum runs Feb. 17 to 21 at the National Arts Centre.

With files from CBC's Kate Porter