Multicultural inauguration of the 30th Festival
On 9 March, 2024, the 30th edition of International Festival of Plays Pleasant And Unpleasant started!
We enter the world of theatre through a restrospectve exhibition. The Powszechny Theatre foyer is the place for pictures and recollections of the past 29 years. The exhibition (Krzysztof Kelm is its curator) presents the way and the role of International Festival of Plays Pleasant And Unpleasant in the history of Polish theatre. List of names of outstanding theatre creators, titles of the best Polish and foreign spectacles, incredible guests – thanks to the Festival, the history of theatre has been written in Łódź.
The 30th Festival was opened by Ewa Pilawska, its creator and artistic director, together with Małgorzata Moskwa-Wodnicka, deputy mayor of Łódź. And then there was the first spectacle of this year’s edition – „Mothers. A Song For Wartime”, an international co-production directed by Marta Górnicka. A spectacle about violence and at the same time an evidence of bright humanity. It is a performance for 21 mothers from Ukraine, Poland, Belarus and their children. Various age, different life stories. Some are survivors from Mariupol, Kyiv, Irpin. Those who have fled war, those who have fled persecution. Their singing, their voice and cry are the way of expressing something that cannot be put into words. Their song is an accusation, a request and warning for us and for all people in Europe.
Aneta Kyzioł was the moderator of the meeting with the spectacle’s creators which took place just after the spectacle. The actresses and Marta Górnicka told about their work the on the spectacle, the spectacle which was a sort of self-therapy and a way of speaking out for them. They emphasized the purpose of the spectacle which is to reach everybody with the confidence that any form of violence – not only war – is evil. We will achieve the goal when we learn empathy and will be able to feel other man’s suffering as if it concerned us, our families, our children…
We want to thank all our viewers who were with us last night. It was an important and multicultural meeting. We thank the Ukrainian and Belarussian refugees living now in Łódź and all spectators from Poland and from abroad who came to Łódź to see „Mothers. A Song For Wartime”.
—
„Mothers. A Song For Wartime”.
Production: The Chorus of Women Foundation (Warsaw) and The Maxim Gorki Theater (Berlin)
Co-production: Powszechny Theatre in Warsaw; Festival d’Avignon; Maillon Théâtre De Strasbourg – Scène européenne; Spring Performing Arts Festival (Utrecht),
Tangente St. Pölten – Festival Für Gegenwartskultur (Austria)
Conception and direction: Marta Górnicka
Text: Marta Górnicka; Ukrainian-Belarussian-Polish team
Music: Wojciech Frycz, Marta Górnicka, traditional Ukrainian, Belarussian and Polish music, excerpt from „Shchedrivka” by Nikolai Leontovich
Choreography: Evelin Facchini
Stage design: Robert Rumas
Costumes: Joanna Załęska
Dramaturgy co-operation: Olga Byrska, Maria Jasińska
Video, video documentation: Michał Rumas, Justyna Orłowska
Video projections: Michał Jankowski
Light: Artur Sienicki
Vocal training and preparation: Joanna Piech-Sławecka
Stage manager and assistant to the director: Bazhena Shamovich
Assistant to the choreographer: Maria Bijak
Cast: Liza Kozlova, Palina Dabravoĺskaja, Svitlana Onischak, Kateryna Taran, Svitlana Berestovska, Valeriia Obodianska, Sasha Cherkas, Maria Tabachuk, Yuliia Ridna, Natalia Mazur, Aleksandra Sroka, Katarzyna Jaźnicka, Bohdana Zazhytska, Anastasiia Kulinich, Hanna Mykhailova, Katerina Aleinikova, Elena Zui-Voitekhovskaya, Kamila Michalska, Maria Robaszkiewicz, Polina Shkliar, Ewa Konstanciak
Photos: Maciej Zakrzewski
