They are survivors. They are fleeing from war and persecution, witnesses of violence and bombings. Women from Ukraine and Belarus who now live in Poland and want to stand and speak together on stage. They use the power of their voices to name that for which there can be no words. They do not want to be heard as victims, but as the protagonists of their own stories.
After an equally acclaimed and unsettling preview at the Festival d'Avignon and the Warsaw premiere, Marta Górnicka's choral theatre piece Mothers – A Song for Wartime is now being performed in Berlin. The long-time Gorki companion (including Grundsetz and Still Life) and founder of the Political Voice Institute brings together mothers of different generations and experiences. Based on traditional Ukrainian ritual singing, they search for a new ritual choral voice. Their singing becomes an accusation, a plea and a warning to us and all people in Europe.
In Polish, Ukrainian, Belarusian with German and English surtitles
With Katerina Aleinikova, Svitlana Berestovska, Sasha Cherkas, Palina Dabravolskaya, Katarzyna Jaźnicka, Ewa Konstanciak, Lisa Yelyzaveta Kozlova, Anastasiia Kulinich, Natalia Mazur, Kamila Michalska, Hanna Mykhailova, Darya Novik, Valeriia Obodianska, Svitlana Onischak, Yuliia Ridna, Maria Robaszkiewicz, Polina Shkliar, Aleksandra Sroka, Kateryna Taran, Bohdana Zazhytska, Elena Zui-Voitekhovskaya
Chorus of Women Stiftung: Marta Kuźmiak, Iwa Ostrowska, Katarzyna Koślacz
Premiere 29/September 2023 Teatr Powszechny Warschau
Berlin-Premiere 3/November 2023
Funded by the Chorus of Women Foundation Warsaw and the Allianz Foundation
Part of 6. Berliner Herbstsalon 2023 LOST – YOU GO SLAVIA
Photo: Esra Rotthoff
Stage photos: Bartek Warzecha
Teaser: Foto: Esra Rotthoff Bühnenfotos: Bartek Warzecha
Teaser: Recordings from the rehearsal, Teatr Powszechny, Warsaw
