Belarus Free Theatre brought the U.S. debut of the play 'Discover Love"
Monday, 21 September 2009
The stage was kindly offered by Georgetown University's Performance Study Program. With the help of Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company and public initiative "We Remember" the play was brought to Washington D.C.
Natallia Kalyada opened the evening by telling the audience the story behind the play. The play was written by Natallia with the help of co-writer Michael Khalezin. The play is based on the true story of love and life of two real people, husband and wife Iryna Krasouskaya and Anatol Krasouski. Anatol was kidnapped and murdered in Belarus, in 1999. The reality of the story unfolds the intensity of social drama as well as shows implications of political situation.
The premier of "Discover Love" became the starting point for the international cultural activists to support the UN Convention against forcible abductions. Many real stories and pictures from other countries were used in the play to emphasize the problem of disappearances.
The story of ryna Krasouskaya was told with sympathy and care in the play. Irina's character was played by talented actress Hanna Salamyanskaya. Her character is the central figure in the play that shows a woman as a loving and strong person. Aleg Sidorchik also impressed the audience with his characters as he was able to reveal the intensity of temperaments and emotions on stage. Washingtonians were able to see remarkable performance and incredible skills of transformation demonstrated by Aleg while he played different characters in one play. In the blink of an eye he turned from kind and gentle Grandma into the selfish and cold father; and again from happy little boy, friend, into the loving husband.
It's important to note that this drama has very deep meaning. It touched the hearts of the audience. The images are so vivid, that every word of the main character's story about his own death echoes in the memory of anyone who witnessed this remarkable performance. You feel uncomfortably involved as you are watching the story, not the legend, the true real life story unfolding right in front of you. There are people in this world that will do no matter what to fulfill their ambitious dreams of power and money. Nothing will stop these people to reach their goal; they will kill if they have to. Irina's husband became a victim of the men in power, he was kidnapped and murdered.
People tend to turn to God when they are hurt or in hopes for better future. The writers decided to include a prayer for innocent victims written by Polish Catholic priest Jerzy Popiełuszko, who was murdered by Communist authorities.
This was indeed, a very touching performance. This story is about people of our time. When you see this story of Irina, you think that it could have happened to you too (God forbeed!) Isn't it the most important idea of any performance, performance that helps you see things, to understand, to question, performance that makes you think? Isn't it?
The premier of "Discover Love" became the starting point for the international cultural activists to support the UN Convention against forcible abductions. Many real stories and pictures from other countries were used in the play to emphasize the problem of disappearances.
