Belaruskie Radio Racyja, Bialystok, Grodno, 98,1 FM
A remarkable production about women at war
Wroclaw
Tragedy of women at war, tragedy of women on the frontline. A remarkable production called Displaced Women was shown at the Festival of Independent Belarusian Culture in Wroclaw. It is based on “The Unwomanly Face of War” by Svetlana Alexievich as well as several works about Polish and German women at war.
“The idea came to me after I had read “The Unwomanly Face of War” by Svetlana Alexievich, the German book “A Woman in Berlin” and “Berlin. Memories of Polish forced laborers in the Third Reich”. They inspired me to create a play, although I actually believed that everything had been already said about the Second World War. However, I noticed that women’s experiences on different sides of the conflict had a lot of similarities. It seemed interesting to me to stage a play with actors from three different countries”, the director Monika Dobrowlanska said.
There are three actresses in Displaced Women. They are from Belarus, Germany and Poland. So you can hear Belarusian, Russian, German and Polish languages on the stage.
Sviatlana Anikei (Belarus):
The main topic is women at war. It’s a global tragedy. When they start a war, they don’t think about the consequences for people. As my role demonstrates, after WWII everybody was reluctant to accept the fact that women had fought on the front lines. Alexievich wrote about it. Only heroic deeds were celebrated after the war, nobody wanted to discuss real life and real problems.
Anna Poetter (Germany):
The play tells the stories of three women. The Second World War was a major disaster for Europe, which changed the lives of every human being. In all of the countries we perform it, there are different opinions regarding what happened at the time. The Germans, for example, recall the responsibility for the Holocaust and they also remember what happened in their country when the Soviet army entered its territory. However, they didn’t know that there had been female soldiers in the Soviet Army.
Monika Davidziuk (Poland):
Talking about the play, we talk about three different stories, which are in fact only one story. My discovery was that there were no questions about guilt. It is important that these stories are based on individual experiences. They should be listened to and understood, shared and passed on and not condemned.
The play Displaced Women in Wroclaw was accompanied by live music.
Its tour was sponsored by the Senate Department for Culture in Berlin.