Umadevi - performance by Teatr Malabar Hotel

The performance brings back to life the work and legacy of Wanda Dynowska/Umadevi – a Polish woman who devoted her life to cultural dialogue, emancipation, helping Tibetan refugees, and promoting a utopian model of coexistence between cultures and religions. Umadevi was an individualist who rejected the ego. She lived by her own rules. She moved between identities, India, and Poland, remaining a deliberately elusive figure. The performance “Umadevi” combines dramatic theatre with puppet theatre and visual arts. The premiere of the Indian version took place at the Kochi Muziris Biennale in January of this year. Showings of the Indian version also took place in Kolkata at the Anuchintan Art Centre, and at the Bharat Rang Mahotsav festival in Bangalore, Delhi, and Guntur. Łukasz Chotkowski is a dramaturge, director, and author of theatrical and theoretical texts, whose work has for over a dozen years consistently developed at the intersection of critical, documentary, and socially engaged theatre. He has collaborated with the most important stages in Poland, including theatres in Bydgoszcz, Wałbrzych, Warsaw, Szczecin, and Opole. Chotkowski wrote the script for the performance about Wanda Dynowska/Umadevi for Teatr Malabar Hotel as part of the Artistic Scholarship of the Capital City of Warsaw 2025. Work on the project was based on extensive research conducted in Poland and India, including archives, publications, and interviews with people connected to the protagonist. As part of the undertaking, a study trip to India was carried out, along with film recordings featuring Indian actor Tapas Chatterjee and people who remember Dynowska's activity. These materials became part of the script and the future stage production.