20 Years in Siberia - A Woman for All Seasons

A dramatic monologue based on '20 Years in Siberia. The Memories of a Lifetime' by Anita Nandris-Cudla

'20 Years in Siberia' is the destiny of a peasant woman in Bucovina, North Romania, the author of one of the most important testimonials of the feared Soviet Gulag. Anita and her entire family were among the 13,000 Romanians who lived the terror of deportation in June 1941. She experienced famine, disease and hard work in one of the harshest environments on Earth, managing to bring up her sons and return to her native village in 1961. Her book of memoirs was only published after the Romanian Revolution in 1989 and was awarded the Lucian Blaga Prize of the Romanian Academy.

Brought on stage by the Bucharest National Theatre in a most powerful one woman show and accompanied by striking visuals, the performance unveils the true terror of communism that affected every person whose life was affected and changed forever.

Amalia Cioran masterfully manages to bring to life the universe of this simple woman, a perfect storyteller and a striking personality, a narration stripped of hatred, self pity or accusations, an account of things just as they happened.

The performance is part of the “The Trial of Communism through Theatre” Programme.