Playwright and director Mikita Ilyinchik, born in 1995 in the Belarusian city of Navahrudak, has been nominated for the Paszporty Polityki award in the “Stage” category, the magazine Polityka reports.
“I look at how new heroes are born and who they are: migrants, hybrids. Hybridity is also a lens through which one can look at society,” Mikita Ilyinchik described his creative strategy. He has Polish roots and calls himself a “hybrid Pole,” Polityka notes.
In 2020 he graduated from the directing faculty of GITIS (the Russian Institute of Theatre Arts), where he also studied theatre studies. While still a student, he staged the productions “Dochki Lira” and “Smert Pazukhina” in Russia, “Kaziny Vyspu” in Brussels, and “M” based on the poetry of Valzhyna Mort at the OK16 centre in Minsk.
In 2021 he joined the troupe of the Theatre on Bronnaya, where he achieved great success with Russia’s first theatrical adaptation of Jonathan Littell’s novel “The Kindly Ones.” His second production — Chekhov’s “The Cherry Orchard” featuring a transgender actress as Ranevskaya — was not completed for reasons beyond his control.
After Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Mikita Ilyinchik moved to Poland, where he staged the production “F***ing in Brussels” at Teatr Polski Bydgoszcz and worked on creating the libretto for the opera “María de Buenos Aires” for the opera theatre in Warsaw.
His plays “The Dark Room” and “Say Hello to Abdo” won the International “Aurora” Competition — the drama award of the city of Bydgoszcz.
Mikita Ilyinchik staged the production “Pygmalion” at the Teatr Polski w Poznaniu od 1875, based on the famous play by Shaw. In the new production, whose script the Belarusian playwright and director wrote together with Polish poet Andrzej Błażewicz, the action takes place in a dystopian future: in Poland, raids and deportations of migrants continue, and to survive, the heroine must shed her Eastern accent.
His most recent production featuring his dramaturgy, “Un-packing” (directed by Katarzyna Kalwat, Dramatic Theatre in Warsaw and Wroclaw Contemporary Theatre), is partly based on the reportage book “The Stones Were Meant to Fly: The Past of Podlasie” by Aneta Prymaka-Oniszk. The book recounts the experiences of the Belarusian minority in the Sokółka region during Sanation-era Poland, the war, and the post-war period — when Orthodox Belarusians were expelled to the “Soviet Paradise.”
“The Belarusian context has always been important to me. Both in Russia and here in Poland, all my characters are Belarusian. Even with Polish actors and in Polish theatres — they are still Belarusian characters,” Mikita Ilyinchik explained in one interview.
Paszporty Polityki is a Polish cultural award presented by the weekly magazine Polityka since 1993. Nominees competing in seven categories are selected with the help of representatives of Polish criticism.
The award ceremony will take place on 11 January 2026.