Contemporary Polish Drama at Kolada Theatre

Polish drama in Yekaterinburg

The Polish Stage Artists Foundation “Plac Teatralny”, Kolada Theatre, the Polish Institute in Moscow and the Adam Mickiewicz Institute organised “Contemporary Polish Drama at Kolada Theatre”, with support from the Theatre Institute, the Polish-Russian Chamber of Commerce and Industry, and the Russian Centre for Science and Culture.

The joint project presented a cross-section of the latest Polish playwriting.

A performance and play readings

On 27 October 2017, we presented Maciej Kowalewski’s “Miss HIV”, directed by Maciej Wiktor, as part of the project.

On 28–29 October 2017, Kolada Theatre’s actors prepared four readings of contemporary Polish plays: Julia Holewińska’s “Foreign Bodies”, Elżbieta Chowaniec’s “Gardenia”, Małgorzata Sikorska-Miszczuk’s “The Suitcase”, and Artur Pałyga’s “In the Radiation”.

“In the Radiation” and “Miss HIV” were translated into Russian as part of the project carried out by the Plac Teatralny Foundation.

The readings were prepared by Maria Kontrovich, a director from Nikolai Kolada’s school.

Artists, encounters and media patronage

The readings were introduced by

Katarzyna Tokarska-Stangret — a doctoral student in theatre studies at the Jagiellonian University and editorial secretary of the monthly magazine “Teatr”.

Artur Pałyga and Maciej Kowalewski attended the readings and answered audience questions about their playwriting.

The monthly magazine “Teatr” provided media patronage for the project.

As part of its media patronage, “Teatr” published an extensive report on our Yekaterinburg project in its February issue.

An encounter between two theatrical traditions

Kolada Theatre in Yekaterinburg is one of Russia’s foremost stages for discovering and promoting new Russian drama.

The Ural school, centred in Yekaterinburg, is among the world’s leading centres of dramatic writing.

Yaroslava Pulinovich and Irina Vaskovskaya are just two examples of the quality of plays emerging from Nikolai Kolada’s circle.

The Plac Teatralny Foundation was the first institution from outside Russia to present non-Russian drama at Kolada Theatre.

Before us, no foreign institution had premiered a production based on a text from its own country on this stage, so distinguished for its contribution to contemporary drama.

It was therefore especially gratifying that “Miss HIV” was planned as more than a one-off presentation: it was to remain in the repertoire for several years, promoting Polish culture in one of Russia’s leading cultural centres.