Ethnic Identity and Anti-Semitism: Tadeusz Słobodzianek Stages the Polish Taboo

Tadeusz Słobodzianek's play, Our Class, addresses the 1941 massacre in the village of Jedwabne, Poland, where an estimated 1,600 local Jews were rounded up by their neighbors, locked inside a barn, and burned to death. First staged in London at the Royal National Theatre in 2009, and later remounted at Teatr na Woli in Warsaw, the play investigates the relationship between anti-Semitism and Polish national identity, exploring how theatre can shape our understanding of history.