This collection published by Freedom Letters contains five of the brightest plays written in 2022-2023 and presented at the independent drama festival \"Lubimovka\".

\"Vanya is Alive\" by Natalia Lizorkina is a poignant story of a mother who lost her son in an undeclared war and finds herself in an upside-down world where \"war\" means \"peace\" and \"captive\" means \"absolutely free\".

In \"Shashlyki\" by Pavel Pryazhko, a domestic plot from the life of a Belarusan family turns out to be the shell of a time bomb that tears us all apart, while in the poetic \"Nameless Soldier\" by Artem Materinsky, the same bomb is packed into a life according to the precepts of the fathers and being a \"real man.\"

\"Waiting is harder than burying\" by Yulia Vishnevetskaya is a poignant text about the wives of the \"Wagnerites\", documenting the transformation of consciousness not only of specific women, but also of a large part of Russian society: from the bravado of the heroes to \"you never existed\", from hope to a sense of bitter betrayal. The play is entirely written by messages from real-life chat rooms.

\"Women in the Dark\" by Masha Denisova and Irina Serebryakova is a story about the victory of life over death and truth over lies, told by the women of Kiev, forced to continue everyday life in the conditions of the war-torn city.

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On April 26, Zurich and Prague will host the Lubimovka Echo festival a series of staged readings of contemporary plays written in Russian.

Throughout the day, audiences will be able to attend readings of plays that reflect different facets of human experience and responses to current events. The program includes the heartrending play " (Vanja Lebt)" by Natalia Lizorkina, shortlisted for "Dramaturgy Against War ", the candid verbatim piece "Men in Daylight" by Irina Serebryakova, the story of parting with a murdered past "" by Esther Bol, and other works.

You can explore anti-war dramaturgy online on the project's website.