This collection published by Freedom Letters contains five of the brightest plays written in 2022-2023 and presented at the independent drama festival "Lubimovka".
"Vanya is Alive" by Natalia Lizorkina is a poignant story of a mother who lost her son in an undeclared war and finds herself in an upside-down world where "war" means "peace" and "captive" means "absolutely free".
In "Shashlyki" by Pavel Pryazhko, a domestic plot from the life of a Belarusan family turns out to be the shell of a time bomb that tears us all apart, while in the poetic "Nameless Soldier" by Artem Materinsky, the same bomb is packed into a life according to the precepts of the fathers and being a "real man."
"Waiting is harder than burying" by Yulia Vishnevetskaya is a poignant text about the wives of the "Wagnerites", documenting the transformation of consciousness not only of specific women, but also of a large part of Russian society: from the bravado of the heroes to "you never existed", from hope to a sense of bitter betrayal. The play is entirely written by messages from real-life chat rooms.
"Women in the Dark" by Masha Denisova and Irina Serebryakova is a story about the victory of life over death and truth over lies, told by the women of Kiev, forced to continue everyday life in the conditions of the war-torn city.