Event

Trash Story

An award-winning play about the impact of war on women, Trash Story is a complex and harrowing tale. Told through the eyes of Ursulka, the play poses important questions about violence, both historical and contemporary, and the secrets it leaves behind. The action is set in a house formerly owned by Germans in the Recovered Territories, now inhabited by Poles, and asks vital questions about the continuity of historical experience. "I imagine memory as a net which we throw to recover waste. As it falls deeper it catches the heaviest waste accumulated at the bottom. This play is full of such trash: historical, familial, concealed. Our Polish collective memory is so littered and until we clean it up, the future generations will not be able to build anything on it," says playwrite Magda Fertacz.

Magda Fertacz is one of the major representatives of a generation of Polish writers who after 1989 have renewed the face of Polish drama. In her work, Fertacz analyses interpersonal relationships both in their purely human aspect, as well as in a broader social context.

Trash Story won the Gdynia Drama Award, one of the most prestigious drama prizes in Poland. The play was also a finalist at the Stuckermarkt in Berlin.

The play is directed by Monica Payne. Monica worked for many years in Chicago with various companies, including Steppenwolf Theatre Company, the Artistic Home, the Hypocrites, and the Journeyman, among others. She later graduated with an MFA in Directing from the renowned UCLA School of Theatre, Film and Television.

The cast includes: Golden Globe nominee Allyce Beasley (Mother), Curtis Nielsen (Father), Anna Podolak (Widow), Alex Walton (Son), Marcus Lorenzo (Brother), Amanda Hawkins (Ursulka), Melessie Clark (Ursulka), and Malena Ramirez (Ursulka).

Produced by: Kulture+ Productions, General Consulate of the Republic of Poland, John Jay College, and Culture.pl