A table full of ingredients. A room full of voices. Two different landscapes soaked in a past full of defiance and resistance. Two different women shaped by the world they did not want to inherit.

Armenians have dolmas. The Poles have their Gołąbki. The Armenian diaspora has been present in Poland for over 600 years. This workshop sets out to explore the culinary and cultural parallels between Poland and Armenia whilst hoping to build a community of migrant voices that understand that so often our past shapes the presence and informs…what we store in our kitchen cupboards.

This workshop is held in collaboration with FINDING LARGE MONUMENTS TO BE DESTROYED, a theatre installation piece created by Polish director Nastazja Domaradzka and British Armenian writer Abi Zakarian. Produced by Claire Gilbert, this piece imagines the meeting between the two artists’ grandmothers, whose lives have been shaped by invasions, war and Western interference. The piece travels throughout the UK, and hopefully beyond, to create a community held together by shared history as well as future hopes.

Join us to find out all about the connections between Polish and Armenian history.

About the Artists

Nastazja Domaradzka is a London-based feminist theatre-maker and director, originally from Poland. Her work is deeply influenced by Eastern European theatre practices, utilizing theatre as a tool of resistance and to amplify underrepresented voices. She holds an MA in Applied Theatre from The Royal Central School of Speech and Drama and has taught and directed at various drama schools across the UK including Arts Ed, Rose Bruford, Bristol School of Acting and East 15. Nastazja developed and led the creative NO BORDERS  programme at The Royal Court Theatre and was an associate to Omar Elerian on his productions of The Chairs at The Almeida and As You Like It at The Royal Shakespeare Company. Directing credits include Dziady / Forefathers’ Eve at The Almeida Theatre, Scream Fire for The Revolution at Theatre Royal Stratford East, and Peyvand Sadeghian’s award-winning piece Dual. She has also directed Grate for the National Theatre of Kosovo, a feminist piece of protest theatre, and a highly acclaimed production of Tennessee Williams’ Orpheus Descending for the National Theatre of Albania. She is one of the original founders of Migrants in Theatre - an organisation which advocates for better representation of migrant artists in British theatre.

Abi Zakarian is an award-winning British-Armenian playwright born and raised in Derby, now based in London. Her plays include: Welfare, Derby Theatre; Age is Revolting, for The National Theatre Connections Festival; We Are Our Mountains, for Bush Theatre Protest Series; Lullaby, Shakespeare’s Globe; Found, produced by 45North for their Written on the Waves series of audio plays; Perfect Myth Allegory at Jermyn Street Theatre for the ‘15 Heroines’ series; Enough, Small Truth Theatre; Fabric, Underbelly & Soho Theatre, UK tour;  A Threshold, BritSchool/Bridge Foundation musical; Old Dough/When Two Armenians Meet, Futures Theatre for their Fully Amplified podcast series; A Thousand Yards at Southwark Playhouse and I Am Karyan Ophidian for the Sam Wanamaker Theatre at Shakespeare’s Globe.

Her play Fabric won a Scotsman Fringe First award and she won the Vault Festival Peoples Choice Award for I Have A Mouth And I Will Scream. She is a previous recipient of an MGCFutures Award bursary.

Her plays Mountain Warfare & Worthy Women were finalist & long-listed for the Women’s Prize for Playwriting in 2021/22 & 2023/24 respectively.

Abi is a co-founder of the horror theatre company Terrifying Women along with Morgan Lloyd Malcolm and Sampiria Al-Fihri. She also created and co-runs the Armenian Creatives Network UK. She is a trustee board member of MGCFutures and a Creative Associate with Small Truth Theatre.

An international production of her play Fabric (as Hilos) is currently running in Mexico City.

Her first short film: Pomegranate, is currently on the festival circuit and she is under commission with A.T.C and Futures Theatre, and has just received ACE funding to develop an immersive theatre show.