Online Lecture " Ukrainian-Polish Crossborder Theatrical Practices 2012-2025. Overcoming Past, Challenging Present, Envisioning Future

Three Lectures, with a common title: Transgressing national (hi)stories through cross-border and feminist dramaturgies: Ukrainian-Polish Theatres, 2012-2023,
presented for the first time during the curated panel of The International Federation of Theatre Research (IFTR) annual conference 'Performing Carnival: Ekstasis, Subversion, Metamorphosis,' hosted by the Theaterwissenschaftliche Sammlung (TWS) at the University of Cologne/Germany, and for the second time at the International Symposium 'Cherkashinsky Chytannya', 29 November 2025 in Kharkiv.
Lecturers:
Yana Partola - Museum of Berezil Theatre in Kharkiv
Kasia Lech- University of Amsterdam,
Ewa Bal - Jagellonian University
Summary
Speaker 1 (Yana Viktorivna) analyses three theatre productions: "Aporia 43-47," "Decalogue. Local World War," and "The Quarrel," which explore how the so-called 'Volhynia tragedy' (at the borderland between Poland and Ukraine in 1943) is remembered, documented, and transmitted through generations in both countries.

Speaker 2 (Kasia Lech ) analyses a production "Cosmic Peace" for children, created in collaboration between Ukrainian, Polish, and Belarusian young actors and professional artists. She discusses the notion of "unconditioned hospitality" in theatre practices that work with different languages and identities, which allows children to imagine and create the future, where migrant children have equal rights

Speaker 3 (Ewa Bal) analyses feminist ideas behind Polish-Ukrainian theatre productions: 'Kreshany' 2021, directed by Olena Apchel, which criticises the patriarchal foundations of Western civilisation. She also discusses the importance of "realistic utopias" in theatre, building on the example of "Radio Mariia" 2022 production created by Roza Sarkisian in collaboration with Joanna Wichowska, that reimagines the future as a feminist utopia.

These lectures present partial effects of the research project funded by the National Science Centre No. 2024/53/B/HS2/02533 entitled 'Theatre as a Laboratory for Polish-Ukrainian Encounters from 2014 to the present day. Perspectives of compassionate thinking', conducted at the Jagiellonian University. The file has been archived on the RODBUK platform under the signature: