Maryna Yakubovich

Actor · Theatre Maker · Director · Educator

           

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Maryna Yakubovich is a Belarusian actress, theatre maker, director, and educator based in Austria. For more than sixteen years, she was a leading actress of Belarus Free Theatre — one of Europe’s most internationally recognised independent theatres, known for politically engaged and documentary performance.

Following political repression after the 2020 protests in Belarus, she was forced to leave the country in 2021 and continues her artistic work in exile. 

Solo Performance CONNECTION

 

Connection is a documentary solo performance inspired by real letters and testimonies of Belarusian women political prisoners.

Blending personal narrative, documentary material, movement, live speech, music, and video projection, the performance explores political repression, isolation, exile, and the fragile connection between those living under dictatorship and those watching from democratic Europe.

 

 

  A body standing before Europe, refusing to let silence become normal.

 

Premiere: 20 April 2024

Mozarteum University Salzburg, Austria

Presented at

Mozarteum Salzburg, Austria

Schauspielhaus Wien, Austria

Munich, Germany

Divadelná Nitra, Slovakia

Vilnius, Lithuania

Prague, Czech Republic

Rehearsal for Truth International Theater Festival, New York, USA (2025)

 

At the centre of the performance stands the performer’s body — not as representation, but as witness: carrying stories that often cannot be spoken publicly by those still living under political pressure.

The work asks an urgent question:

What happens when solidarity remains only words?

Rooted in Belarus yet speaking to broader European realities, Connection examines freedom, responsibility, democratic fragility, and the cost of silence.

Credits

Director & Performer: Maryna Yakubovich

Text: Maryna Yakubovich & Mikita Ilyinchyk

Assistant Director: Alina Danko

Developed within Practicing Care at Mozarteum University Salzburg.

Supported by the Austrian Federal Ministry for European and International Affairs through the European Artists Solidarity Programme (ASOP).

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