STOPOVER EUROPE
Documentary performance
PLAYWRIGHT Anastasia Relitova
DIRECTOR Valiantsina Maroz
DRAMATURGY Kacia Chekatouskaya, Ondřej Novotný
SET AND COSTUME DESIGN Lucie Pangrácová
MUSIC Jindřich Čížek
POSTER DESIGN Nastya Stalmahova
PRODUCER Ewa Zembok (production platform Rekultur)
PROJECT MANAGER Hanna Kazakova
CAST Volha Karalionak, Hanna Sabaleuskaya, Khrystyna Volovik, Kostiantyn Zhyrov.
STOPOVER EUROPE is a documentary performance that delves into the experiences of emigration and escape from war, centering around the personal narratives of Belarusians and Ukrainians who have endured these challenging journeys since 2020.
For Belarusians, the catalyst for their exodus was the August 2020 revolution, triggering an unprecedented wave of repression that coerced tens of thousands, now numbering in the hundreds of thousands, of active citizens to flee their homeland in order to evade persecution under the Lukashenko regime.
In the case of Ukrainians, the turning point was February 24, 2022, when millions of people, mostly women and children, were compelled to abandon their homes as the Russian full-scale invasion launched relentless shelling and bombing.
STOPOVER EUROPE explores the profound transformations that individuals undergo throughout such turbulent events, examining the reevaluation of personal values, the awakening of national identities, and the challenges encountered while adapting to unfamiliar places.
Moreover, the performance seeks to shed light on the evolving dynamics between Ukrainians and Belarusians. Will the future witness the potential reestablishment of dialogue and understanding? Can families torn asunder by opposing allegiances find hope for reunification?
The production also aims to examine the perceptions of the Czech people towards the influx of Ukrainian and Belarusian emigrants and refugees, alongside their efforts in providing support from the onset of hostilities and continuing until the present day.
Performance is a co-production of Czech independent institutions: Rekultur z.s., Divadlo X10 and Belarusian Social Theatre Lab.
The project was created with the financial support of the European Union (National Restoration Plan, Ministry of Culture), the City of Prague, the State Culture Fund of the Czech Republic, the Life of the Artist Foundation and was supported by the European programmes Culture Moves Europe and EU4Culture.
Social Theatre Lab has existed since 2017 and aims to highlight socially significant, traumatic and underestimated topics and problems of Belarusian society. Under the direction of director Valiantsina Maroz, it produces documentary productions and staged readings of its own plays and plays by contemporary authors. STL also collaborates with the Belarusian theatre, currently based in London, HUNCHtheatre, with whom they held their first joint project in November 2018 - a series of events "Meyerhold. Case 2.0.". Social Theatre Lab has been actively involved in the protests following the rigged 2020 elections, most of its members are now in exile.
Rekultur is an independent production platform that initiates the creation of new, novel and original projects of the contemporary Czech and European scene (with an emphasis on performance art). The platform is engaged in the realization of its own artistic projects and co-productions; it wants to cultivate the viewer towards modern thinking that appeals to communication and leads to a more conscious and active social and civic engagement.
