We called this edition of Theatre Confrontations Festival The Jews in Theatre. The European Union announced 2008 the Year of Intercultural Dialogue. For us, the inhabitants of Lublin this issue is particularly significant and emotional, at the same time painful. There is no Jewish community in Lublin any more. What remained is “burning memory” and “shattering absence”.
Two years ago Tadeusz Słobodzianek, a playwright and founder of Drama Laboratory (Warsaw), was running - in cooperation with Teatr NN - a theatre workshop in Nasutów called The Jews of Lublin. We had not expected that meeting was going to result in creating a number of substantial drama pieces. Five of them will be presented at our festival. It is a continuation of our practice of co-producing theatre performances.
The festival will offer productions from six different countries. We will experience the way our friends from Israel, Russia, Sweden, Belgium, Estonia and Czech Republic tell their history affected by the Jewish problem. It will be accompanied by a session chaired by Dariusz Libionka, an expert in this area.
Welcome to the festival
Janusz Oprynski director of the festival
XIII International Festival Theatre Confrontations, Lublin, 8-12.10.2008
more at www.konfrontacje.pl
