E-WERK Saal
Marta Górnicka & Ensemble

MOTHERS – A SONG FOR WARTIME

Ukraine, Belarus, Poland

War and childhood

Sat 06/15/24 | 8:00–9:30 pm Tickets 
Sun 06/16/24 | 8:00–9:30 pm Tickets

The performance on June 15th will be followed by an audience discussion. The performance will be in Ukrainian, Belarusian and Polish with English and German surtitles.  

Violence against women is a horrific constant in times of war: Together with 21 Ukrainian, Polish and Belarusian women between the age of 9 and 72 years, Marta Górnicka arranges a powerful choral performance. They are mothers and children who fled war and persecution from Mariupol, Kiev, Irpin and Kharkiv and the people who took them in. They all have their own experiences and stories, but together they use the power of their voices in a CHORUS OF MOTHERS FOR WARTIME.  

In their search for a new voice, the choir mixes traditional folk songs, Ukrainian nursery rhymes, incantations and political statements. The choral speaking of the women and children becomes an accusation, a plea and a warning to all European people. At the same time, they advocate a new solidarity and new rituals of humanity.  

Marta Górnicka is the founder of CHORUS OF WOMEN and the Political Voice Institute at the Gorki Theater in Berlin. She develops a unique choral theater in which voices and bodies are transformed into political instruments to examine mechanisms of control, exclusion and violence, but also to give each individual their own expression.

This project is co-financed by the City of Warsaw and by the Minister of Culture and National Heritage of the Republic of Poland from the Culture Promotion Fund.

"They have seen and experienced things for which there are no words. They speak and sing about them, together, in a clear and strict form. With an attitude that moves and shakes. (...) Górnicka's ensemble finds words for the collective memory. For the fear, the loss, the grief, the anger. For the dreams of peace and the aftermath."

- Rüdiger Schaper, Der Tagesspiegel

Tickets | E-WERK | Saal

Ensemble Liza Kozlova, Palina Dabravolskaya, Svitlana Onischak, Kateryna Taran, Svitlana Berestovskaya, Valeriia Obodianskaya, Sasha Cherkas, Yuliia Ridna, Natalia Mazur, Aleksandra Sroka, Katarzyna Jaźnicka, Bohdana Zazhytskaya, Anastasiia Kulinich, Hanna Mykhailova, Katerina Aleinikova, Elena Zui-Voitekhovskaya, Kamila Michalskaya, Maria Robaszkiewicz, Polina Shkliar, Ewa Konstanciak, Maria Tabachuk
Concept and direction Marta Górnicka
Libretto Marta Górnicka & Ensemble
Music Wojciech Frycz, Marta Górnicka
Choreography Evelin Facchini
Stage design Robert Rumas
Costumes Joanna Załęska
Dramaturgical assistance Olga Byrska, Maria Jasinska
Video & documentation Michał Rumas, Justyna Orłowska
Video projections Michal Jankowski
Lighting Artur Sienicki
Translation Libretto Olaf Khul
Vocal coach Joanna Piech-Sławecka
Stage manager and assistant director Bazhena Shamovich
Choreographic assistance Maria Bijak
Movement workshop Krystyna Lama Szydłowska
Subtitle Zofia Szymanowska
Translation Ukrainian libretto Olesya Mamchych
Translation Belarusian libretto Maria Pushkina
Translation English libretto Aleksandra Paszkowska
Translation German libretto Olaf Khul
Interpreter during the rehearsals Marharyta Huretskaya
Advice on Ukrainian ethnomusicology Anna Ohrimchuk
Advice on Ukrainian children's games Venera Ibragimova
CHORUS OF WOMEN Foundation Producers Marta Kuźmiak, IwaOstrowska, Anna Galas-Kosil, Alicja Berejowska
Teatr Powszechny Producer Magdalena Płyszewska

Website gornicka.com