Dziady/ Forefathers' Eve

This semi-staged reading will take place at the Almeida, as part of Six Artists in Search of a Play.

Polish political prisoner Gustav finds himself incarcerated for nationalistic activities against Tsar Alexander I. Through Part III of Dziady/Forefathers’ Eve, he is re-Christened as Konrad and transformed from the maudlin, self-absorbed lover, to the impassioned revolutionary, striving to bring his nation together and free his people from oppression.

Dziady/Forefathers’ Eve is the best-known work of Adam Mickiewicz, widely accepted as Poland’s greatest poet. Considered a significant work of European Romanticism, Mickiewicz’s poetic drama is presented on a British stage for the first time in this radical feminist staging.

In this adaptation, Mickiewicz‘s characters embody the here and now of the global contemporary world whilst directly addressing the history of Poland and its current political turmoil. An all-female cast take to the Almeida stage to readdress the power imbalance so often present in classical text.

Nastazja Domaradzka on why she chose this play: “A year on after theatres closed; a year of grief, protests, movements rising, a year when Britain exited the EU, a year in which the class privileges became even more visible, a year that called for the work that we present to be speaking to here and now, Mickiewicz’s verse seems just as relevant in this awakening world as it did in 1960s Poland when the Soviets tried to ban it. Yet it is more than apparent that this particular moment in time calls for the text to be played with and disrupted, hence an all-female cast takes to the Almeida stage; the Slavic spirit of resistance so present in Mickiewicz’s verse, fuelled by a new perspective.”