Witnessing War: Theatre's response to Russia's invasion of Ukraine (4 years on)
When:
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Venue:
TBC
In the four and a half years since the start of Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, the response of theatre makers to the war has shifted and evolved. While in the early days, theatre buildings became physical spaces of refuge for the local population, since then, making theatre has at different points, become a mode of witnessing, an act of resistance, a way of partaking in the conflict itself and much more. As the tactics of the invasion have expanded to include perisistent and lethal drone incursions and devastating attacks to Ukraine’s infrastructure, theatre makers, within Ukraine’s borders and beyond, have had to rethink how they respond to this ongoing brutality and what role performance might play in ongoing debates around memory, history, national identity and survival.
Bringing together theatre scholars and practitioners from Ukraine, Poland and the UK, this roundtable coincides with the publication of Contemporary Theatre Review’s special issue: ‘Theatre’s Response to the War on Ukraine: Performances of witnessing, documentation and intervention’. It features presentations from the issue's the editors, Olga Danylyuk, Kasia Lech, and Amanda Stuart Fisher, as well as London-based Ukrainian playwright Polina Polozhentseva. These short presentations will be followed by a roundtable discussion moderated by Birkbeck's Molly Flynn.
This event is co-produced by Birkbeck's Centre for Contemporary Theatre, Birkbeck's Creative Practice Lab, Central School of Speech and Drama, University of Amsterdam, and the Global Coalition of Ukrainian Studies. It will be held in-person on Birkbeck's Bloomsbury campus with the exact location anounced closer to the date.
Please note: This event is listed here with its rescheduled date after having been postponed due to extreme weather in June 2026.
Contact name: Molly Flynn
Speakers-
Amanda Stuart Fisher
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Amanda Stuart Fisher is a Reader in Contemporary Theatre and Performance and the Research Lead for the Department of Practice at Central of School of Speech and Drama. In 2024 she was awarded an AHRC Fellowship for the project 'Credible Witnesses: Young People, Life Performance, and Testimonial Injustice'. Developed in partnership with Little Fish Theatre and Oldham Theatre Workshop, this research examined young people’s experiences of epistemic and testimonial injustice and explored how performance can enhance how we listen to young people. Recent publications include ‘Ugly Feelings: Disruptive performances of race and care during the pandemic’ in Performance Research (2022), 'Performing the Testimonial: Rethinking verbatim dramaturgies' (MUP, 2020), and 'Performing Care: New perspectives on socially engaged theatre' co-edited with James Thompson (MUP, 2020).
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Kasia Lech
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Kasia Lech is a scholar, actor, storyteller, dramaturg, and puppeteer with scholarly and creative expertise in the intersection of theatre and performance with multilingualism, verse, translation, migration, and artistic research. She is an Associate Professor Global Performance History at University of Amsterdam and an Executive Director at 'The Theatre Times', a multi-awarded global theatre portal, which seeks to decolonize theatre criticism. Kasia's recent publications include 'Feminist Imagining in Polish and Ukrainian Theatres' co-authored with Ewa Bal (Cambridge University Press, 2025), 'Multilingual Dramaturgies: Towards New European Theatre' (Palgrave, 2024), and 'Dramaturgy of Form: Performing Verse in Contemporary Theatre' (Routledge, 2021).
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Molly Flynn
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Molly Flynn is a Senior Lecturer in Theatre and Performance and the Subject Lead for Performing Arts and Creative Industries at Birkbeck, University of London. Her research analyzes theatre as venue for social change and space for civic engagement. Her most recent projects focus on Ukrainian theatre sine the Euromaidan Revolution as a form of anticolonial resistance and cultural diplomacy. She is the editor of 'Ukrainian New Drama After the Euromaidan Revolution' (2023) and the author of 'Witness onstage: Documentary theatre in twenty-first-century Russia' (2020). Molly is the director of Birkbeck's Creative Practice Lab and the Co-director of Birkbeck's Centre for Contemporary Theatre.
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Olga Danylyuk
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Olga Danylyuk is a researcher, curator, and theatre director specialising in performance, conflict, and intermediality. She completed her PhD at the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama, University of London and holds a MA degree in Scenography from Central Saint Martins College. Her fieldwork in Eastern Ukraine included frontline documentation, humanitarian aid, and devising theatre projects with young people affected by war. Her recent documentary performance, 'A Visit to the Minotaur', was presented at the Voila Europe Festival, London (2022), followed by street performances 'Evacuation 2022' in Prague, Brussels, and Paris (2023), and 'EMETA: The Legend of Golem' at the International Theatre Festival Golden Lion in Lviv (2023).
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Polina Polozhentseva
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Originally from Zaporizhzhia and formerly based in Kyiv, Polina Polozhentseva is a Ukrainian playwright who has been living in London for the past four years. A laureate of multiple playwriting competitions, Polina’s plays have been translated into English, German, and Polish, and staged worldwide – from Hong Kong to New York. Polina's play 'The Village Where No One Suffers' premiered at London's Jack Studio Theatre in January 2026 and most recently the English-language premier of her play 'Grandma and Grandpa Do Have Sex' was staged at London Lion and Unicorn Theatre in September 2022.
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