„The Saved” at the 31st Festival

On Friday, 11 April 2025, there was a shocking presentation at the 31st International Festival of Plays Pleasant And Unpleasant – it was the monodrama „The Saved” directed by Maja Kleczewska and performed by Agnieszka Przepiórska. It is a tribute to the women of Warsaw’s Zieleniak and to all victims of brutal violence that happens at every war. Thank you for this important night with long standing ovations. We join  Agnieszka Przepiórska in thanking so many of you who decided to listen to this story.

„The Saved” is one of the first tributes to the victims of Ochota (district of Warsaw) pacification during the Warsaw Uprising. Piotr Rowicki wrote his script which was based of fragments of diaries and memories of the victims; he described a fragment of many war crimes commited in 1944 by SS RONA units which consisted mainly of defectors from the Red Army.

Irena K., living in Opaczewska Street, is the main character of „The Saved”. She is a fictional character who accumulates traumatic experiences of all wronged women. In August 1944 she was 12 when SS RONA units came to Warsaw at the beginning of the uprising. Drunk soldiers herded the civilian population of the Ochota district to a transition camp situated in the corner of Grójecka and Opaczewska streets at the vegetable market (hence the name Zieleniak); they pulled out of the crowd young and old women, small girls and future mothers and raped them. Many of the women were brutally killed. Irena managed to survive. Her memory has been dead for 80 years. But everything returned to her on the occasion of unveiling the monument „to honour the murdered”. Again it was the night at the Zieleniak, screams of girls and women who could not be saved. Again she heard her muffled voice and then, suddenly, she started to speak loudly and clearly „I had then a white ribbon pinned to my hair”…

After the spectacle Aneta Kyzioł moderated the meeting with Maja Kleczewska and Agnieszka Przepiórska. The creators emphasized that although the history of the Warsaw Uprising is well documented, the events which took part at the Zieleniak have still been a white, unexplored card. There have been no names, there have been no source materials. During the communist period the history was wiped out, after 1989 nobody would explore it. The process of creating the spectacle consisted in seeking any sources, conversations, looking for witnesses.

Maja Kleczewska noticed that she wanted the spectacle to be first of all an account of history not covered by theatrical measures. The creators wanted the spectacle to concentrate on the history of Irena K., on giving voice to a woman. Agnieszka Przepiórska told about her way to build the character of Irena K. (she appears on the stage both as a girl and as old woman) and the use of her own personality traits while creating the character.

Thanks for all important opinions of the viewers and especially for the statement that violence has no nationality – it involves everybody and women are the biggest victims of wars and that is why the spectacle’s closing appeal is so important.    

Today we present the spectacle for the second time.

 

Dom Spotkań z Historią In Warsaw
Piotr Rowicki
„The Saved”
Directed by Maja Kleczewska
Costume: Konrad Parol
Music: Cezary Duchnowski
Video: Krzysztof Garbaczewski
Choreography: Anna Krysiak
Substantive consultations: Sylwia Chutnik, Wiola Rebecka Ph.D., Joanna Rolińska
Cast: Irena K. – Agnieszka Przepiórska

 

Photos Maciej Zakrzewski