Christmas tree at Ivanovs

“The Christmas Tree at the Ivanovs” is a performance that touches on the phenomenon of modern Russian culture and Russian mentality - full of contradictions, violence and brutality, and at the same time paradoxically oversaturated with love of Russian culture and art. The creators of the play, the leading theater duo - director Jędrzej Piaskowski and playwright Hubert Sulima take to the workshop the work of Alexander Vwiedensky (1904-1941), a Soviet avant-garde writer and dissident, a vocal critic of the Soviet regime. “Christmas tree at the Ivanovs” is his most famous work to this day. This drama is based around the story of a young girl by her nanny. Piaskowski and Sulima, following the drama and intentions of Wwiedensky, use the convention of the theater of the absurd to create a tragicomic performance, steeped in both humor, absurdity and grotesque, as well as the profound tragedy of human existence collided with the murderous state system and dehumanized social attitudes. The artists are also looking for common points, between the Russian and Polish mentality, “The Christmas Tree at Ivanovs” becomes a kind of magnifying glass, a theatrical warning for viewers, encouraging reflection on the influence of Eastern values on contemporary Polish society. It is no coincidence that the action of the play takes place today, in Muchosransk - a provincial city on the western outskirts of the Russian Empire, where - quite by accident - one can find numerous similarities with modern Poland.