Performance "Ballad of Volhynia"

This won’t be an ordinary evening at the theater. “Ballad of Volhynia” is a performance that pierces with silence and stays in the heart for years. See the spectacle that’s being talked about throughout Poland, but which will be in Nysa for just one day. Ballad of Volhynia Teatr Nie Teraz’s “Ballad of Volhynia” is the first theatrical performance in Poland to tell the story of the genocide committed by Ukrainian nationalists against the Polish population living in the southeastern provinces of the Second Polish Republic during World War II. This incredibly difficult topic, for decades largely ignored, is still awaiting its full recognition in the Polish consciousness. It is as important as the memory of the Warsaw Uprising or the generation of Cursed Soldiers. The script draws on themes from the legendary book “Zasypie wszystko, zawieje” by the great Polish writer Włodzimierz Odojewski. Original testimonies of people who survived the Holocaust of Poles in the Borderlands are also used, as well as old songs, including a Ukrainian melody with contemporary words by Bogna Lewtak-Baczyńska.

Direction, screenplay, and set design: TOMASZ A. ŻAK Actors: ALEKSANDRA PISZ, ZOFIA STACHOWIAK, ANNA WARCHAŁ Voice 1: TOMASZ LEWANDOWSKI Voice 2: JERZY PAL Technique: RYSZARD ZAPRZAŁKA In the monthly “Teatr” ranking – The Best, the Best, the Best of the 2010-2011 season, “Ballad of Volhynia” was nominated in three categories: – Best Theatrical Adaptation (text adaptation). In his exceptionally compelling production, Tomasz Żak, the play’s screenwriter and director, utilizes plot threads from Włodzimierz Odojewski’s novel “Zasypie wszystko, zawieje” (Everything Will Be Covered, Blizzarded) as well as facts contained in documents and testimonies of survivors of the horrific Holocaust perpetrated against Poles by Ukrainian nationalists in the Polish region of Volhynia during World War II. He also draws on family testimonies, particularly those of his grandparents, who came from Volodymyr-Volynskyi. A cohesive, dramaturgically superb adaptation. It’s worth noting that this shocking topic, still taboo in our country, appears on the Polish stage for the first time. – Best Direction

Tomasz Żak’s highly successful direction, which gives primacy to the spoken word, enriching it with a clear symbolism of signs, maintains a certain rhapsodic theatre convention, not exceeding the limits of necessary expressiveness, which is extremely important given such a shocking subject. The idea is consistently carried out from the first to the last scene, and the compositional framework of the Prologue and Epilogue is interestingly conceived; In the 2014-2015 season, the “Teatr” ranking awarded TNT a special distinction in the “Best Alternative Theatre Performance” category: All performances from the current repertoire of the Nie Teraz Theatre from Tarnów, founded and expertly led against the dictates of political correctness by the tireless Tomasz Antoni Żak.