MARTA GÓRNICKA

MOTHERS
A SONG FOR WARTIME

A performance for 21 ukrainian, polish, belarusian mothers and children

World premiere: 29 September 2023, Teatr Powszechny, Warsaw
French premiere: 4 October, Maillon, Théâtre de la Ville de Strasbourg, Strasbourg
German premiere: 4 November, Maxim Gorki Theater, Berlin

Our performance is about women and war.
About defense mechanisms and responsibility.
About our reaction to a war in Europe.
About the rituals of wartime violence against women and civilians which are unchanging.
Marta Górnicka

The wartime rituals of violence against women never change.
War asks Europe the ultimate questions: about responsibility in the face of danger, and about our defense mechanisms. Out of the testimonies of mothers and children—Ukrainians, Belarusians and Poles: those who have fled war; those who have fled persecution; and, finally, those who have welcomed them in Polish homes — Marta Górnicka, polish director, creator of the CHORUS OF WOMEN and the founder of the Political Voice Institute at the Maxim Gorki Theater in Berlin, creates a choral performance with her ansamble.

The cast comprises 21 Ukrainian, Polish and Belarusian women aged 9 to 71, each with her unique political experience and a different life story; refugees from Mariupol, Kyiv, Irpin and Kharkiv. This CHORUS OF MOTHERS FOR WARTIME seeks a new, post-opera choral voice that draws from the female choruses of the seventh century BC.

Ukrainian children's rhymes, traditional songs, spells and political statements all meet and mix with each other.

The performance “for wartime” opens with a shchedrivka (Ukr. щедрівка) – a traditional Ukrainian song, a wish of happiness and rebirth of the world. It dates back to pre-Christian times and is likely thousands of years long. The ritual of singing a shchedrivka was performed by women only, or by women and children and it was always addressed to a particular person. People believed in the power of the song, trusting that its words and the good wishes would come true. Today, these sung wishes are addressed to all people, for a new time; for their entire life.

In the past, the CHORUS was supposed to sanctify the uniqueness of life and serve a rebirth, a recovery. It was the opposing force to ANNIHILATION. Our performance draws on that force. Marta Górnicka

At a time when Ukraine is crying out, we need practices from long before the birth of the theatre; those brought by the CHORUS.
We need the theatre with its power of transformation.
With its power to remember what is most monstrous, and what war trauma wants to remove from the field of vision.
A theatre of new forms of solidarity and new rituals.
A place where a better world is imaginable and possible.
Marta Górnicka for Theater der Zeit

A reading of the libretto of Marta Górnicka’s MOTHERS. A SONG FOR WARTIME took place at the Avignon Festival on 23 July 2023.
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