In 1941, in the small Polish village of Jedwabno, something hard to understand happened: the local Jews, residents of Jedwabno, were locked in a garden and burned alive. Their killers were not monsters from hell, but ordinary people, Jewish neighbors and classmates who may have once sat on the same bench. Playing together, making pranks, dreaming together about what they will be when they grow up.
"Our Class" is not an ordinary play about good and evil, about victims and executioners. Here, every character deserves even a little human sympathy. And everyone carries an ever-increasing burden of mistakes in their lives. From childish arrogance, unwillingness to see another human being as one's equal, to mass murder, the road is not as long as it might seem.
The action of the play covers a long period of time, from 1925 until these days. Eighty years - such a volume of material in literature would beg for an epic novel. T. Słobodzianek was able to concentrate it into a short play, and show the entire 20th century through the lives of the students of one class. He doesn't try to condemn or justify anyone - he simply tells about the complex lives of people in an impartial voice, and that story becomes universal, speaking about human nature, about the past, present, and - unfortunately, but very likely - future of all mankind.
The author of the play is T. Słobodzianek (b. 1955) - Polish theater critic, playwright, director. Since 2012 - Director and artistic director of the Warsaw Drama Theater. 1981 made his debut as a playwright in 1982. also took up directing. He worked in the theaters of Warsaw, Krakow, Lodz, Poznań, Gdańsk as a host, director and playwright of the literary section.
"Our Class" is the most performed Polish play in the world. Since its first production at London's National Theater in 2009 it has been performed in Canada, USA, Spain, Italy, Czech Republic, Japan, Brazil, Sweden, Israel, Hungary, Denmark. It was staged in Lithuania at the National Drama Theater by director Yanna Ross. Oskars Koršunovas staged the play in Oslo, Norway (2015). The plays won many awards around the world, and the play "Our Class" itself became the first drama work in Poland to be awarded the prestigious "Nike" literary prize (2010).
