On November 23, 2026, Teatr Palladium in Warsaw hosts the world premiere of “INOSTRANKA”, a play by director Maxim Didenko based on the novella of the same name by Sergei Dovlatov. The lead role is played by Masha Mashkova. The production is presented by Bird&Carrot productions, Developing Artists foundation and Msquared. Doors open at 18:00, the performance starts at 19:00.
What makes a person leave home? Politics, history, circumstances, or simply a “bad mood”? “INOSTRANKA” looks for answers to these questions and moves them into today’s reality. It is the story of the heroine, Marusya Tatarovich, and at the same time the personal story of the actress herself: her attempts to break through in Hollywood, life in Los Angeles, memories of family and growing up. The production is based on real events.
The play is a conversation without a fourth wall: ironic, honest, funny and, as the authors put it, therapeutic. It speaks about emigration as an eternal human experience, the attempt to find your place in the world and keep your sense of humour when everything around you turns foreign and new. If in the 1980s emigration was a domestic drama, today it is an existential leap into the unknown. Yet the core stays the same: each of us becomes a “foreigner” at some point, in a new country, a new profession or even in our own life.
Masha Mashkova says she searched for a long time for material that would let audiences laugh out everything that has piled up, laugh until they cry. Then Marusya came to her, a heroine from Novosibirsk who emigrated to America and, once emigrant life set in, suddenly wanted to go back.
Maxim Didenko’s signature method combines live theatre, cinema and multimedia, building a contemporary language of stage art. “INOSTRANKA” runs on two parallel processes, one theatrical and one cinematic, and the film becomes a part of the performance itself. Maxim Sukhanov, Varya Shmykova, Nikita Kukushkin and Nikola Ashurkov appear in the film part.
Creative team: playwright Mikhail Durnenkov, director Maxim Didenko, composer Anna Drubich, costumes by Tatiana Dolmatovskaya, set design by Ksenia Peretrukhina, choreography by Vladimir Varnava, light and sound design by Yuri Galkin, multimedia by Oleg Mikhailov. Producers: Alexandrina Markvo, Katerina Kashintseva and Masha Mashkova.