“East Direction” is one of the main and most important projects of the Białystok Drama Theatre. This year’s edition is about to reach the halfway point, but there are still a few festival screenings waiting for audiences.
Photo: Bialystok Drama Theater
The show “Class”
The Festival’s repertoire includes performances from theaters from Ukraine, Armenia, Georgia, Belarus, North Macedonia and Lithuania. The East direction VI started on Wednesday (5.10) and will last until Saturday (15.10).
On Friday evening (7.10), the group of the Kyiv Academic Theater of Drama and Comedy on the left bank of the Dnieper performed on the stage of the Auditorium of the Faculty of Educational Sciences. “Class” directed by Stas Zhyrkov.
The show addressed issues of oppression at school and in the school setting, underscoring the universality of this phenomenon. It also contained war-related overtones. The free-form piece evokes emotion, sadness, but also laughter and reverie. The kyiv theater had “Class” in its repertoire for four years, but only now (in Białystok) it was possible to perform it for the first time since the outbreak of the war.
– In previous editions of the festival, we have already hosted two groups representing Ukraine – from Kharkiv and Lviv – notes Piotr Półtorak, director of the Drama Theatre.
And on Saturday (8:10 p.m.) the public was able to attend the play entitled “A tramway named desire” directed by Goga Chakvetadze. Actors of the Waży Pshaweli State Drama Theater in Telavi of Georgia presented one of the most famous plays, which was repeatedly performed on stages all over the world.
– I am very happy that after such a long break we had the chance to come to Białystok. The last time we were there was in 2019. I am so grateful to you for welcoming us with open arms. Our cooperation, or rather our friendship and the awareness that we can count on you, is very important to us,” said Davit Natsvlishvili, actor of the Georgian State Drama Theater named after He Weighs Pshavela in Telavi.
On Sunday (9.10), the audience could see artists from the National Academic Theater of Gabriel Sundukyan in Yerevan, who performed “Eurydice”.
The performance was very popular with the Białystok audience. To thunderous applause, the audience awarded the role of Eurydice’s father who played part of the role in Polish.
After each performance, the public could chat with the artists. Meetings with the actors were led by Dorota Sokołowska – journalist from Polish Radio Białystok.
In the following days, the festival audience will be able to attend the following performances: “Goose-men-swans” by the independent theater group Kupalaŭcy from Belarus, “Bacchantes – a short story of decay” by the National Theater of Bitola from North Macedonia and ” Mary” from the Alytus Municipal Theater of Lithuania.
The festival will end on October 15. On this day at 6:00 p.m. artists from the kyiv Academic Theater “Golden Gate” from Ukraine will perform. A show called “IN-NI” will be exhibited at the University Cultural Center at ul. Ciołkowskiego 1N.
Detailed program of the Festival.
The festival “East Direction VI” is financed from the state budget – from the funds of the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage and from the budget of the Podlaskie Voivodeship.
