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…. The long-time Maxim Gorki Theatre companion (including Grundgesetz 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.
World premiere: 29 September 2023, Teatr Powszechny, Warsaw
With Katerina Aleinikova, Svitlana Berestovska, Sasha Cherkas, Palina Dabravolskaja, Katarzyna Jaźnicka, Volha Kalakoltsava, Ewa Konstanciak, Liza Kozlova, Anastasiia Kulinich, Natalia Mazur, Kamila Michalska, Hanna Mykhailova, Valeriia Obodianska, Svitlana Onischak, Yuliia Ridna, Maria Robaszkiewicz, Polina Shkliar, Aleksandra Sroka, Mariia Tabachuk, Kateryna Taran, Bohdana Zazhytska, Elena Zui-Voitekhovskaya
Concept & direction Marta Górnicka
Libretto Marta Górnicka & ansamble (Ukrainians–Belarusians–Poles)
Music Marta Górnicka, traditional Ukrainian, Belarusian and Polish music, a quotation from Mykola Leontovych’s Shchedryk
Choreography Evelin Facchini
Stage design Robert Rumas
Costumes Joanna Załęska
Musical collaboration Wojciech Frycz
Dramaturgical collaboration Olga Byrska, Maria Jasińska
Video, video documentation Michał Rumas, Justyna Orłowska
Video projections Michał Jankowski
Lights Artur Sienicki
Vocal coach Joanna Piech-Sławecka
Stage manager and director’s assistant Bazhena Shamovich
Choreographer’s assistant Maria Bijak
Movement workshop Krystyna Lama Szydłowska
Ukrainian libretto translation Olesya Mamchych
Belarusian libretto translation Maria Pushkina
English libretto translation Aleksandra Paszkowska
German libretto translation Olaf Khul
French libretto translation Cecile Bocianowski
Ukrainian ethnomusicology consultation Anna Ohrimchuk
Ukrainian children’s games consultation Venera Ibragimova
In-rehearsal interpreter Marharyta Huretskaya
Surtitles Zofia Szymanowska
Producers Marta Kuźmiak, Iwa Ostrowska
International tour producers Anna Galas- Kosil, Joanna Nuckowska
Production CHORUS OF WOMEN FOUNDATION (Warsaw), Maxim Gorki Theater (Berlin)
This project is co-financed by the capital city of Warsaw and the Minister of Culture and National Heritage from the Culture Promotion Fund, and is carried out in cooperation with the Allianz Foundation.
