Queebaret: Dresden-Kiev
Bliadski Circus Queebaret
Changes, both good and traumatic, demand celebration. Bliadski Circus Queebaret invites the audience to celebrate together! They will open the door to the world of unrestrained love, ecstatic fun and unbridled fantasies.
Bliadski Circus Queebaret is a feminist-queer collective initiated by the leading representatives of progressive Ukrainian theater currently living in Warsaw – theatre director Roza Sarkisian and actress and performer Oxana Cherkashyna. The team is also co-created by Alexandra Malatskovska – composer and performer, and Agata Siwiak – curator and artivist. The name of the collective and at the same time its main formula of artistic expression – Queebaret – combines two elements that work together. Cabaret as a response to the turbulent times marked by the war in Ukraine and Queer, as a space of love, resistance and subversion, which allows you to radically cross the borders of bourgeois taste and patriarchal norms.
Bliadski Circus Queebaret is the result of changes and at the same time a response to changes in the lives of its members in the last several months:
“• Three of us are Ukrainian. There is a war going on in our country led by Putin.
• One of us has lost a loved one.
• Four of us fear for the lives of loved ones every day.
• One of us got married.
• Four of us founded a theater collective that works for the feminist and queer revolution.”
7:45 pm there will be an introduction.
Duration: approx. 1 h.
Language: English, Ukrainian
Квір-феміністичний колектив Bliadski Circus Queebaret відкриває двері у світ розкутого кохання, екстатичних веселощів та нестримних фантазій. За ініціативи провідних представників прогресивного українського театру – режисера Рози Саркісян та виконавиці Оксани Черкашиної. У співпраці з композиторкою Олександрою Малацковською та куратором Агатою Сивяк кабаре та квірність поєднуються в імпровізацію радикального опору війні в Україні.
19:45 – вступне слово.
Тривалість: бл. 1 год.
Мова: англійська, українська
Bliadski Circus Queebaret operates as part of the Reszka Foundation, and its partner institution is the feminist cultural institution – Teatr Dramatyczny in Warsaw. In 2023, BC Queebaret will have its performances at HELLERAU– European Center for the Arts Dresden, Gorki Theater in Berlin and at the Dramatic Theater in Warsaw.
Roza Sarkisian (Роза Саркісян)
Roza Sarkisian is a graduate of the Theatre Directing Department of Kharkiv National University of Arts named after I. P. Kotlyarevsky and political sociology at the University of Karazin in Kharkiv (2009). She was initiator and artistic director of the independent Kharkiv De Facto Theater (2012-2017). In 2017-2019, she was the artistic director at the First Ukrainian Academic Theater for Children and Youth in Lviv. In 2020-2021, she was a full-time theatre director of the National Academic Drama and Music Theater in Ivano-Frankivsk. Roza Sarkisian is a laureate of the British Council Ukraine competition “Taking the Stage 2017”, the “Personality of the Year of the City of Lviv 2018” award in the theater category and laureate of Artistic Scholarship of the President of Ukraine (2019/2020). In Poland, Roza Sarkisian realized her performances and projects in the Powszechny Theater in Warsaw (Teatr Powszechny); in the frame of the Close Strangers festival and residency program at the Polski Theater in Poznań and within the Korczak Festival in Warsaw. The theatre production “Radio Mariija” staged by Roza Sarkisian at Teatr Powszechny in Warsaw was recognized in prestigous theater rankings as one of the most important theatre events of 2022 in Poland. The artist lives in Warsaw.
Oxana Cherkashina (Оксана Черкашина)
After graduating from the University of Arts in Kharkiv, she made her debut at the The Kharkiv Ukrainian Drama Theatre. In 2013, she received Lesia Kurbas scholarship “for a significant contribution to the cultural life of the city.” In 2013-2018, she was an actress in independent theaters, where she created dozens of roles in cooperation with many social and cultural organizations. In the 2019-2020 season, she was an actress of the The Kyiv State Drama and Comedy Theater on the Left Bank. In 2018, she made her debut on the Polish theater stage in Katarzyna Szyngiera’s play “Lviv We Will Not Give Back” and in 2019, she received several major theater awards for this role. In 2019, Oxana Cherkashina played one of the main roles in Natalia Vorozhbyt’s film “Bad Roads” (Ukrainian “Погані дороги”), which premiered at the 2020 Venice Festival in the Film Critics Week section. Thanks to this role, Oxana Cherkashina won the “Kinoko 2020” award for the best Ukrainian film actress. The film was a Ukrainian candidate for an Oscar in 2023. Since 2019, Cherkashina has been associated with the Powszechny Theater in Warsaw. In 2021, “Klondike” directed by Maryna Er Gorbach, was presented in the main competition of the Sundance Film Festival, as well as at the Berlinale Festival. In 2023, Oksana Cherkashina won the main acting award at The 34th Annual Palm Springs International Film Festival (PSIFF) Oksana Cherkashina lives in Warsaw.
Alexandra Malatkovska (Александра Малацковская)
Composer, vocalist, pianist and actress. The artist is the author of music for numerous performances, e.g. directed by Roza Sarkisian (since 2014), Iryna Tsipina, Olena Apchel and Elena Avdieieva, as well as short films. Performances with her music received two awards (2018, 2019) as part of the “Taking the stage” competition organized in Ukraine by the British Council. She is also a laureate of the 16th Zaporizhzhia International Film Festival (ZIFF) for the best film music. Alexandra Malatkovska is a person with refugee experience and a resident of Warsaw since 2022.
Agata Siwiak
Artivist, curator, researcher and producer of performative projects; PhD associated with the University of Adam Mickiewicz in Poznań and the president of the Reszka Foundation. In 2016-2021, she was the artistic director of the Close Strangers festival and residency program at the Polish Theater in Poznań – the project was dedicated mainly to Ukrainian theatre for its last 3 editions. As a curator and producer Siwiak realized her own projects, e.g. in the Warsaw Biennale, the National Stary Theater in Krakow, the Polish Theater in Bydgoszcz and in the National Audiovisual Institute.
Direction & Performance: Roza Sarkisian
Performance: Oxana Cherkashyna
Composition & Performance: Alexandra Malatskovska
Curation: Agata Siwiak
Costume & video & drag make-up: Kiju Klejzik