In 2011 I was detained at the "Silent" protests in Minsk against the authorities in Belarus. Because of the detention I did not have the opportunity to study in Belarus. In 2013 I moved to Moscow, where I entered the Russian Academy of Theatrical Art (GITIS) at the theater studies faculty. In 2015 I joined the directing faculty of GITIS, the experimental workshop of Dmitry Krymov and Evgeny Kamenkovich, where directors, actors and stage designers studied together. Since 2018, I worked as a director and playwright at OK-16 Theater. In 2020, the theater was closed by the authorities and theater director Maria Kolesnikova was detained for 12 years in prison. Since 2020, worked as a staff director at the Theater on Bronnaya. I was the first in post-soviet countries who direct the novel The Kindly Ones, with the support of J. Littell. In 2022, I planned to produce a performence "The Cherry Orchard" with a transgender persona, but the Russian Ministry of Culture banned the production of the performence.

Playwright, director

Mikita Ilyinchyk

(Mikita Iljińczyk)

Curriculum vitae

Direction

Playwright

Awards

Artistic dossier

The Kindly Ones

by Jonathan Littell

Malaya Bronnaya Theatre

Moscow, 2021

The play was created as part of a young directors' residency. I spent almost a year writing a theatrical adaptation of the novel. Its central theme is the state of being a hostage, and not only and not so much in the literal sense, but also within familial, social, political institutions, and even through the very fact of being born. At the core of the conflict is the incompatibility of inner freedom versus the norms imposed by historical context.

My grandfather hardly ever talked about the war. He knew that he was used as 'cannon fodder'. Yet he had no hatred or anger, no grudges or even a desire for revenge. He understood that he was a hostage of the times. I'm dreading being a hostage, I'm fearful of agreeing to be a hostage. Or am I a hostage already?

The Kindly Ones adaptation is not really about the past; it's not historical fiction or political literature. The scariest thing is that this text can be foreboding. Ancient Greek myths glide through time, and they do not care where to replay their stories.

Cherry Orchard

by Anton Chekhov

Malaya Bronnaya Theatre

Moscow, 2021

Currently I am working on a production of Anton Chekhov's The Cherry Orchard at the Malaya Bronnaya Theatre (release February 2022). I am exploring Chekhov's text via Shakespeare in the sociopolitical vector and via Dostoevsky in the psychological vector. The scene is set in the Ranevskaya's son Grisha’s room. That very Grisha, who had drowned five years earlier. The room has become a memorial to the failed “sovereign”. Under the supervision of Petya Trofimov, Grisha was supposed to become the heir and build a “beautiful new world” – different from the tyrannical rule of his grandfather – the former lord. But Grisha never grew up, and the world of The Cherry Orchard freezes to a standstill: Ranevskaya's brother Gayev takes everything into his own hands, being incapable of anything but imitating his father.

In the end, Lopakhin buys the orchard and thereby completes the period of standstill. Firs dies with peace of mind, he is glad that the cherry orchard will be under the supervision of the new tyrant – Lopakhin

Ranevskaya was meant to play by the first transgender actress in the history of Russian theatre Natasha Maximova. However she was canceled due to intensified homophobic policy of Russian state. In the framework of my conception of the play, the transgender actress exists in a timeless period of compromise, but her story ends when the space is submerged in militarism with its uncompromising nature

Fucking in Brussels

by Mikita Ilyinchyk

Teatr Polski Bydgoscsz

Bydgoscsz, 2022

"Fucking in Brussels" is the story of a young Eastern European immigrant who was forced to emigrate to the European Union due to political instability in his home country. Moreover, in his country he is threatened with arrest. In new countries, he faces the difficulties of integration, bureaucracy, and discrimination. Therefore, he decides to use all the money that he has left from the sale of his father's apartment to spend on a kind of political action. The protagonist moves to Brussels (the capital of the European Union), rents an apartment opposite the European Parliament, installs the Grinder app (Gay daiting chat), where he finds his "victims" - employees of the European Parliament. Employees come to him for sessions of BDSM practitioners, with the help of which the main character vents his aggression (beats employees). However, a romantic relationship is formed with one of the employees of the European Parliament, which initially contradicted the "mission".

The performance, on the one hand, touches on an important political discourse and the problems of Europeans who cannot live on the European continent. On the other hand, this is a subtle, psychological, cinematic story about loneliness, impossibility, anger and aggression that lives in each of us and which is looking for its way out of the human body.

The text "Fucking in Brussels" was specially written by Teatr Polski Bydgoscsz

August

anonymous author

Instytut Teatralny

Warszawa, 2023

"AUGUST" is the project with which BY theater begins its activities. The date of the premiere is not coincidental - March 25 is Belarus Independence Day. The creative collective of the play performs as a group of anonymous artists for reasons of security, not only their own, but in the first place their relatives who remained in Belarus.

In the performance "AUGUST," we look at the events and protests that took place in 2020, using the example of an ordinary Belarusian family. We explore the collective trauma of Belarusian society, which needs to be realized and worked through in order to internally relive that endless August (for many who stayed in the country, it still hasn't ended) and move forward on the path of change. The dramatic axis focuses on - seen from the perspective of 2023 - the relationship between citizens and the oppressive state, social conflicts, as well as the personal choices (and the consequences of those choices) of the people who took part in the protests against the dictatorship.

EMMA

by Mikita Ilyinchyk

Teatr Komuna Warszawa

Warszawa, 2023

The main inspiration of the text is the idea of "profit in wartime." This idea has its own artistic history: B. Brecht and his play "Mother Courage," written after World War II, which tells the story of a woman who travels around Europe during the ''Thirty Years' War' and sells things to the needy. In this way, Brecht's heroine seems to live through the war. The author's goal is to create a text and a play that deals with this subject and is related to the real history of our time. The drama touches on the subject of modern European society, specifically the Poles. The main character is the titular Emma, an immigrant from Belarus and owner of a construction company in Warsaw. All the builders who work for her are refugees who came to Poland from the former eastern borderlands. Thanks to them, she runs her own successful business.

The essence of the project is not a political statement, but an attempt to present the characters from the psychological side. In the foreground is the story of a woman - her loneliness and transformation, and the political and social contexts are only a background. And, of course, the subject of business at war. The text is based on a true story of a family living in Warsaw. The author's task was to transform this situation into an art form that touches on all the problems associated with the situation in this family. The play also aims to show topics related to the situation of Eastern immigrants in Poland.

Lear's Daughters

by Elaine Feinstein

Boyar Chambers

Moscow, 2019

n 2019 I translated from English into Russian Elaine Feinstein's play Lear's Daughters, written in collaboration with the feminist theater company Woman Theatre Group. People grow up in greenhouse conditions, unaware of what goes on behind the walls of their native 'incubator'. But when the confinement of the space is transformed, we observe consciousness initiation, and maturation. I have explored and reflected the process of awareness unveiling against the backdrop of a constant invisible pressure of some force: King Lear is invisibly present in the form of stories and myths, that control our thoughts and actions. In 2019, the play won the prize for best directingThe Art Okraina Festival in St. Petersburg.

М.

Based on Valzhina Mort poetry

Independent Contemporary Art Space OK16

Minsk, 2019

The play based on texts by the Belarusian contemporary poetess Valzhina Mort. I explored the Belarusian “cultural DNA” as a form of suffering that is being reiterated for generations. In the play, Belarusian women reproduce a set of traumas, a modus vivendi, the rules of the game inherent from their predecessors. At the moment, the play is terminated, because due to political reasons Belarusian authorities have closed down the only Independent contemporary art site in Minsk “OK16”, because Maria Kalesnikava (sentenced to 12 years “for trying to seize power”) was the director.

Military Zone

by Mikita Ilyinchyk

Teatr Polski Bydgoscsz

Bydgoscsz, 2023

Bydgoszcz is called the 'Polish capital of NATO'. It is here that the headquarters of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation units are located. The city is the modern centre of the country's military potential. Here we can feel safe and protected. But are we sure? For his next art project, Mikita Ilyinchyk looks at the sphere of Bydgoszcz's military security. Analysing the contemporary landscape of the city, he investigates how it affects the psychological sense of security and awareness of its inhabitants. Does the close presence of NATO make us feel safe? Do we think about potential threats when passing a military post on our way to the shop? Is Bydgoszcz the security centre of the whole country or a potential war zone? Could a NATO base be a trap? Asking these questions, Ilyinchyk juxtaposes the present with historical sources and, by exploring sites of memory, seeks the identity of Bydgoszcz as a peace/fighting field.

"MILITARY ZONE" is an invitation to participate in a performative walk in which a variety of tools, media and digital forms, will become guides to the military face of the city. Following this interactive narrative, we rediscover already tamed spaces, provoke a look from different perspectives and reveal the duality of meanings.