The Lubimovka Independent Playwriting Festival is a non-profit international project of Russian-speaking playwrights. Our objective is to create and maintain an atmosphere of free artistic and human expression without censorship or political or ideological restrictions.

The Lubimovka Festival accepts contemporary plays, of which the festival readers form a shortlist and additional programs. We present the selected plays to theater professionals and everyone else in the form of director's readings and, if possible, in the form of online broadcasts.

After Russia's full-scale military invasion of Ukraine, the festival unequivocally protested and spoke out against Russian aggression and in support of Ukraine. After that, it was impossible to hold Lubimovka in Moscow due to the threat of political persecution of the participants. Therefore, since 2022, due to the impossibility of holding the festival on the territory of the Russian Federation, the international project Echo of Lubimovka began to develop. The festival has taken place already in Paris, Belgrade, Tel Aviv, Yekaterinburg, Istanbul, Narva, Tartu, Tbilisi, and Haifa.

The program of the Eсho of Lubimovka in Berlin includes eight plays from the Lubimovka anti-war shortlist.

By holding the Echo of Lubimovka in Berlin, at the crossroads of all cultures and subcultures, we aim to reflect the cultural identity of the city in the composition of the festival participants. All of the texts presented in Berlin will be translated into German and offered for production to directors from a wide range of migrant backgrounds. Some of the plays will be read in German by actresses and actors from Germany and other countries. Another part will be read in Russian with German subtitles.

As is the festival tradition, after each reading, we will hold a discussion of the text with the playwright, director, actresses, and actors.

All funds raised from ticket sales will be donated to the 'Aid Pioneers' a German charity organization.

 

21 APRIL

17:00
Vanya Is Alive RU 
by Natalia Lizorkina
Directed by Philipp Grigorian
Translated by Maria Zharkova
German with Russian subtitles

An absurd story about a mother whose son was mobilized. Nevertheless, she cannot call a spade a spade because everything is turned upside down in the world of propaganda and total lies.

19:00
Songs Of People Falling Down In The Elevator RU
By Ekaterina Zhmyrova, Ivan Orlov, Ulyana Petrova, Alexey Sinyayev
Directed by Lena Binski
Translated by Maya Löber
German with Russian subtitles

A collective text by a group of playwrights from different cities. It describes the change of the private life of Russians since February 24th 2022.

21:00
Women In The Dark RU
by Irina Serebryakova and Masha Denisova
Directed by Satchel Reemtsma
Translated by author
English with Russian subtitles

A play about two actresses who are trying to stage a play about the life of Ukrainians during the war. The writing of this text was supported by the Italienska Palatset and Bild och Form Kronoberg, Region Kronoberg (Sweden).

 

22 APRIL

12:00
Border RU
by Sergey Davydov
Directed by Iurii Shekhvatov
Tranlsated by Tatyana Axelrod
English with Russian subtitles

An autobiographical poetic text about life on the Russian-Ukrainian border and the hero’s relations with his mother.

14:00
The Unknown Soldier RU
by Artyom Materinsky
Directed by Masha Sapizhak
Translated by Maya Löber
Russian with German subtitles

A documentary about the Russian army and its system of subordination. This play explores the nature of war crimes.

17:00
Mugallima RU
by Dina Safina
Directed by Anastasia Patlay
Translated by Rustam Akhmedshin
Russian with German subtitles

A Tatar feminist opera about women struggle to overcome the ways of a patriarchal religious world.

19:00
Battle of Mosul RU
by Alexey Zhitkovsky
Directed by Waseem Alsharqi
Translated by Shan Cuizhu, Tatyana Zborovskaya, Daria Stopicheva
Edited by Katharina Spiering
German with Russian subtitles

In the play action takes place in a small town in Iraq, where thousands of civilians died during the war. The themes of the play are search for enemies, an attempt to distance themselves from someone else's war, and militarization.

21:00
A Text for the Theatre: Work on Removal of Intellectual Spells RU
by Vikentiy Bryz
Directed by Polina Borodina
Translated by Tatyana Zborovskaya
Russian with German subtitles

A sophisticated play, that experiments with language. It speaks about the distortions of the collective consciousness. "What can a simple Russian girl Nancy Drogovich, twisted into a knot by one hundred and forty-five million people, do?"