Poland

This month Warsaw Dramatic Theatre continues to host public readings of Fabulamundi selected texts translated into Polish. On the evening of 16 April, there'll be a reading of Out There by French Fabulamundi author Nathalie Fillion (translated by Aleksandra Stelmach and directed by Aldona Figura). The reading will be followed by an open discussion with the audience and experts.

The new season of Teatr Dramatyczny in Warsaw starts with the stage reading of The Calipsh Will Kiss Our Foreheads by the Austrian author Muhammet Ali Baş, with the direction of Aldona Figura. The play tells in a highly comic manner of the efforts of two young men to enroll in jihad. Its principal aim is to expose the absurd reasons that motivate them to do so. Aside from all the usual, frequently discussed explanations, the play attempts to highlight the role of pop cultural elements and religious illiteracy in this. In the course of the play the two young men meet a plethora of quirky, bigoted characters who are in the jihad business primarily to further their own financial interests. This is often grotesquely funny but is also highly instructive. Not only for the figures taking part, but also for the audience. The play tries to make sense of the incomprehensible in a quirky and comic manner without making it appear cute.

At Teatr Dramatyczny of Warsaw in January Smutek I Melancholia (Traurigkeit & Melancholie) by German author Bonn Park will still be running. The show will be on stage on 12-13 January, translated by Iwona Nowacka, with the direction of Piotr Waligorski, the set and costume design of Jak Kozikowski and with Zdzislaw Wardejn as George.

Fabulamundi - Call for Associate Researcher Fabulamundi Playwriting Europe is seeking a highly motivated individual to join our team as Associate Researcher for our academic research project ‘Fabulamundi Workbook: Mapping Contemporary Playwriting and Theatre Translation Practices in Europe’, led by Dr Margherita Laera, Senior Lecturer in Drama and Theatre at the University of Kent, Canterbury, UK. This is a highly flexible part-time role which would suit a recently appointed Lecturer, post-doc, or PhD student based at any higher education institution in the EU, who could freely choose to spend their paid research time on this project. The position starts in June 2019 and ends in July 2020. The Associate Researcher will receive a small honorarium.

From 23-25 September, Interkulturelles Theaterzentrum Berlin will host the Mob-Pro Germany, the three-day training programme focused on the role and the work of the playwrights in contemporary society. The theme of this session will be Translation and it will see the involvement of international experts with the participation of eleven Fabulamundi playwrights: Katja Brunner (Germany), David Drabek (Czech Rep.), Azar Mortazavi (Austria), Artur Pałyga (Poland), Pier Lorenzo Pisano (Italy), Guillaume Poix (France), Gabriel Sandu (Romania), Fabrizio Sinisi (Italy), Robert Woelfl (Austria), Joan Yago (Spain), Petr Zelenka (Czech Rep.). During the MobPro, on September 23rd, there will also be presented a short version of Natura morta con attori by Fabrizio Sinisi and Nationalstrasse by Czech author Jaroslav Rudis  at Haus der Statistik.

On 11-12 February Scenes of domestic violence by French author Gerard Watkins will be on stage at Teatr Dramatyczny m. st. Warsawy, with the direction of Aldona Figura.

5.10.2020, 19:00 Raven from the Tower by Andrei Ivanov translation by Bożena Majorczyk direction by Aldona Figura “We are lonely. We love no one. And our life is screwed up." The teenage Kostia, after the death of her father, lives in conflict with her mother. He spends his free time in front of the computer, hates the world and family, is depressed and depressed. He is cold, there are no feelings in him, will say the mother, who, concerned about her son's condition, decides to conduct an unusual pedagogical experiment. By creating a fake Facebook account, she decides to establish a contact with her son that he doesn't really experience. The virtual relationship between Toffee and Raven from the Tower turns into a painfully honest conversation between lonely people who long for normality. In his shocking drama, Andrei Ivanov tells about the despair that becomes a companion in everyday life and about the risky fight that every mother will undertake to get her beloved son back. Andrei Ivanov (born in 1984, Blagoveshchensk, Russia). He lives in Minsk. He is a philologist and playwright. In 2007 he graduated from the Faculty of Philology of the Belarusian State University. A. Pushkin in Brest. He worked as a journalist, as an editor in a feature film studio, as an editor in a children's book publishing house. His play "It's all because of her" (the only one that the author considers completed) was written in 2012 and published in 2013 in the Russian monthly "Oktiabr", it was first staged in 2014 at the Dramatic Theater. W. Majakowski in Norilsk. Currently, the author works as a screenwriter at the Animated Film Studio in Minsk. 12.10.2020,  19.00 Victims. Belarus by Andrei Kuriejczyk translation by Jakub Adamowicz direction by Marcin Liber "Victims. Belarus” by Andrei Kuriejczyk is a play devoted to current protests and post-election events taking place in Minsk and the rest of the country. Battles like this - between society and power, happen once every hundred years ... battles between good and evil - says one of the heroes of the play. Old Belarus, symbolized by the relentless Alexander Lukashenko, collides with New Belarus, whose face is Svetlana Cichanouska and young citizens. In a country on the verge of civil war, people are asking what a person can do in the name of hatred. The Kuriejczyk is ruthless in showing the truth about how a system that seems to be a monolith is slowly falling apart from the inside. Andrey Kuriejczyk (born 1980, Minsk) - playwright, actor, director, screenwriter. He lives in Minsk. Author of stage works, incl. Skaryna, Theatrical art (Tieatral'naja pjesa), Bright house (Light house), Kindergarten (Dietskij sad). The writer's plays have been staged on many stages, incl. MChAT im. Chekhov, Dramatic Theater of them. Majakowski (Moscow), the Belarusian National Theater J. Kupała and the Russian Drama Theater. M. Gorky (Minsk), the Ukrainian National Theater L. Ukrainka (Kiev). He has participated in many drama competitions, incl. Eurasia (Yekaterinburg), Debut (Moscow), competition organized by the Belarusian Ministry of Culture. For several years he worked as a rapporteur for the daily "BiełGazieta" (he published over two hundred articles). He is the author of two anthologies, the last of which - Skaryna - was published in 2006. Four plays have been translated into Polish: Klan Blindców (translated by Karolina Niewiadomska), Niebo (transl. Piotr Mitzner), Russia offended (transl. By Dariusz Jezierski) and Skrzywdzeni. Belarus (translated by Jakub Adamowicz). The drama Klan the Blinds was published in the anthology Nowa dramaturgia Belaruska. Vol. 1 (edited by Andrei Moskwin, Warsaw 2011). The second, Niebo, under the pseudonym Nikita Mickiewicz, first published the monthly "Dialog" (2005/12), and then - in the anthology Nowa Belarusian dramaturgia (volume 6, Warsaw 2017). The play "Victims. Belarus", based on recent events in Belarus, is read in 50 theaters in 13 countries around the world. 19.10.2020, 19.00 Penaty by Timofiej Iljewski translation by Jakub Adamowicz direction by Artur Tyszkiewicz Instead of talking to each other, they reach for phones, the always-on TV becomes a companion of everyday life, screaming replaces words, and headphones on their ears help to escape from everyday life. Timofiej Iljewski in his comedy-drama portrays a three-generation Belarusian family locked in one apartment, condemned to their presence. Grandma - for thirty years she was the secretary of a party organization and it's hard to part with the past, father - a frustrated lecturer, tired of explaining the basics of knowledge about culture and art to students, mother - locked in the kitchen with a pot of potatoes, she has no strength to raise children, daughter - a typical teenager experiences emotional crises related to boys, the son - a young rebel stuck to the computer screen, wants to escape from a country where power takes away people's freedom. There is also my grandfather - a former journalist, a silent observer of crazy family life, whose main occupation is reading notes and memories from the war times at dinner. What must happen for the family to start talking to each other again? Are the crisis of communication and lack of understanding inherent in our everyday life? Timofiej Ilijewski (born 1961, Brest) - director, playwright. A graduate of the Belarusian State University of Culture. In the years 1988-2001 he worked at the Youth House in Brest, headed a theater club there and was the artistic director of the folk theater "Rajok". He is the author of eleven stage pieces, incl. Existence (1997), Fokstrot (1997), Homo ludens (2001), West Fort (2008), Chapter Seven (2008), Solar Circle (2011), Penaty (2016), Francysk. A Parable (2016), The Last Hero (2018). 26.10.2020,  19.00 Live until the premiere. A comedy in two acts by Nikołaj Rudkowski translation by Bożena Majorczyk In order to be credible on a theatrical stage, does one have to experience in reality what the protagonist experiences? For Vera and Katia, young actresses who are preparing a war-themed performance, empathizing with a role becomes synonymous with losing a sense of reality. Their ambition dictates that in order to create authentic figures of partisans, they must, like them, "soak up the smell of war". Hunger, poverty, fear, difficult conditions, escapes, torture, pain - actresses are trying harder and harder to feel the danger and risk associated with conspiracy and conflict. Their attempts quickly turn into crazy and absurd actions, which the husband of one of them looks at with pity. It is he who loudly declares that in the modern world there are things worse than war, and the basic question for today is the question of how an ordinary man is to live in times of ubiquitous reduction, crisis and unemployment? Mikołaj Rudkowski's surreal comedy is a perverse story about a theater that tries to get closer to life and a life that resembles an ordinary farce. Nikołaj Rudkowski (born 1971, Minsk) - playwright, journalist, actor and director. A graduate of the Faculty of Philology of the Belarusian State University in Minsk and the Faculty of Directing of the Belarusian University of Culture and Arts. Actor in the National Academic Dramatic Theater M. Gorky (1995-1999). For this group he wrote a production by Pierrett (1995) based on the works of Arthur Schnitzler. In this play, he acted as an actor and served as an assistant director. He was also the director of his own plays: The Blind Star ("On the Balcony" Theater, 2007 and the Center for Belarusian Drama and Directing, 2008); Bergman's Women ("On the Balcony" Theater, 2007). Since 2000 he has been working on the Belarusian-German radio "Unistar" as an editor.