In the organizer's words:

"Lübimovka - Echo. Munich".

Independent festival for anti-war theater and solidarity action. Theater against the Russian war of aggression in Ukraine

From June 28 to 30, 2024, the festival for anti-war theater "Lübimovka - Echo" will take place in Munich for the first time. The festival presents Russian-language plays written after February 24, 2022 by authors from Russia, Belarus, Israel, Lithuania and Ukraine.

Lübimovka is an independent festival of new drama that was held annually in Moscow until 2022 and was the main event for young Russian-language playwrights from around the world. A festival of total freedom, where playwrights could express their position without fear of censorship. Each year, the Open Call received over 700 new plays, from which professional readers selected 20-25 of the best plays for the readings.

After the large-scale military invasion of Ukraine began, the festival openly protested against Russian aggression. Holding Lübimovka in Moscow became impossible due to censorship and the risk of political persecution of participants. In September 2022, the festival announced an open-ended anti-war open call. Now the plays created since then are being read at various stages of the festival around the world. "Lübimovka - Echo" has thus become an anti-war movement of theater makers who have emigrated from Russia in protest against the war or fled political persecution.

The festival has already taken place in Narva and Tartu, Tbilisi, Haifa, Tel Aviv, Paris, Belgrade, Istanbul, Berlin, Baku, Granada, Yerevan, Jyväskylä, Helsinki and Prague. In June 2024, "Lübimovka - Echo" will take place in Munich for the first time.

The main program includes 11 pieces:

● Artem Golovnin "Dumskroling and Dumliving" (Ukraine)

● A.Ya. "Sasha why" (Russia)

● Vitaliy Chensky "Samogonschitsa Anna" (Ukraine)

● Ekaterina Augustenyak "Common Shame" (Russia)

● Diana Balyko "I have the audacity to be" (Belarus)

● Irina Serebryakova, Masha Denisova "Women in the Dark" (Ukraine)

● Irina Serebryakova "Men in the daylight" (Ukraine)

● Marius Ivaškevičius "Rise of the Gods" (Lithuania)

● Natalia Lizorkina "Vanya Lives" (Russia)

● Yulia Tupikina "An animal attacked" (Russia)

● Esther Bol "Brut" (Israel, France)

In the festival's off program, the play "It turns out it's not you" by Vsevolod Lisovsky and Konstantin Schawlowski will be performed. The program will be complemented by a lecture by theater historian Natalia Skorokhod on the history of "Lübimovka".

"Lübimovka - Echo" in Munich aims to use dramaturgy to raise awareness of the terrible reality of the Russian war of aggression in Ukraine. The festival organizers are fighting against habituation and indifference. We must never forget that the war is still in full swing. We must not get used to it, we must not forget it, we must talk about it.

The festival for anti-war theater is also important for the future: today we are documenting different voices against war and resisting the normalization of war. Tomorrow and beyond, these plays will be a valuable archive of our time. After all, "Lübimovka - Echo" in Munich is not only a theater platform, but also a solidarity action. All organizers and participants of the festival - professional art managers, curators, directors, artists and actors - work on a voluntary basis.

Some plays will be performed in German, presented by actors from Munich and other German cities. The remaining texts will be performed in Russian with German or English subtitles. The readings are staged by professional directors from Germany and other European countries.

The readings take place in the GOROD cultural center. Each reading is traditionally followed by a joint discussion with the playwright, the director and the actors. The full festival schedule will be publishedon the center's website GORODat the beginning of June. Free admission to all readings.