The performance is for viewers aged 16 and over.
The performace contains violence scenes, including sexual violence, and uses profanity.

“The Survivors” is one of the first theatrical tributes to the victims of the pacification of Ochota during the Warsaw Uprising. Drawing from excerpts of memories and diaries of both witnesses and victims, playwright Piotr Rowicki has crafted the story of Irena K., a poignant depiction of the atrocities committed in 1944 by the SS RONA units, consisting primarily of deserters from the Red Army. The play is not just a story about the transit camp at Zieleniak; it becomes a universal narrative about the experiences of women who suffered wartime rape. This story will be relevant in every part of the world where armed conflict is taking place, and where rape is used as a weapon of war.

Irena K. from Opaczewska Street was just 12 years old in August 1944 when the SS RONA units appeared in insurgent Warsaw, forcing Ochota’s civilian population into the camp at Zieleniak. Night after night, drunken soldiers dragged out of the crowd women of all ages, from little girls to expectant mothers, and raped them.

Many of them were brutally murdered. Irena managed to survive. For eighty years, her memory fell silent, but on the day a monument was unveiled to honor the murdered at Zieleniak, it all came back to her. She was back in the night at Zieleniak, hearing the screams of the girls and women no one could save. Once again she heard her own muffled voice. Then, suddenly, she began to speak out loud: “At that time, I had a white ribbon pinned in my hair…”.

This is the strongest of Agnieszka Przepiórska’s monodramas. She masterfully guides her character from a distraught elderly woman, through a violated girl, to an avenger consumed with pain. Krzysztof Garbaczewski’s animations, based on old photographs, add a compelling visual dimension.

Przemysław Gulda, ig: guldapoleca

For many years, the history of wartime sexual violence has been cast into oblivion, despite being an integral part of war—a weapon that wounds for decades to come. And one that is still being used. The final, pathetic plea of the raped and murdered women of Zieleniak shakes me to my core. The story is not over.

Katarzyna Janowska, Newsweek

Language: Polish (English subtitles)

After the evening performance there will be a meeting with the creators.

Cast

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