"The Anti-Hero with a Thousand Faces" is a new solo performance by the Belarusian contemporary artist Zmicer Waynowski. Built as a reflective monologue addressed to the protagonist’s countrypeople sharing the same “uncomfortable” history of the repressive state, the play however should not to be framed as covering recent Belarusian events only.

Waynowski rather widens the context and invites interpretations from different historical epochs and political clashes, himself also hinting at possible inspirations from Homer, Sartre, Camus, and Kerouac. His story is really about Ulysses-like long and painful journey in search for home, sense, and oneself – a journey that one inevitably has to face in life, with the finale never clear-cut and obvious in the beginning.

When asked by Zmicer to co-author the play, I immediately felt the topicality of the key message he wanted to be articulated on stage. In the current times we are living through – witnessing wars evolving at all possible levels – it is essential to find in oneself critical, emotive, and spiritual power to get back to the basics, to question, to be frank and to recall what it means to be a human. The depth and uneasiness of the protagonist’s inner dialogue, I am sure, would resonate with the performance’s public in many theatres across Europe.

Olga Bubich