ETC Drama Committee Reveals 2026 Selection

In the Demchynskyi family —consisting of father, mother, daughter, and son — a ghost appears. The devout and proper family is convinced that the ghost is their son Vasylko, who died of illness and has now returned from another world to visit his loved ones. They consider him part of the family and do everything they can to protect him.

This unusual event — the appearance of a ghost — attracts a commission of exorcists from Lviv: Dr. Kostelnyk and Dr. Dorozhynskyi. These are respectable gentlemen who try to fit the ghost Vasylko into their own understanding of mystical phenomena, and even hope to profit from it, disregarding the family’s desire to keep the ghost, so to speak, for their private use.

For the story, the author draws on a real event that took place in the small town of Brody in Galicia, modern-day western Ukraine. The play captures the warmth of family life, the taste of homemade dishes, and the quiet rhythm of daily routines. Threaded through this local authenticity is a gentle, luminous sorrow, as the family lives through the tragic loss of their eldest son.

"A poetic touching portrayal of events that one can associate well with a social and psychological struggle many families in Ukraine and beyond have to face."
The ETC Drama Committee appreciated how the play resonates far beyond its immediate setting, where the confined space becomes a microcosm through which broader social, political, and temporal tensions are reflected. By blending elements of magical motifs with techniques of documentary theatre, the play creates a layered reality. 

This family is finished. Ophelia is not a daddy’s girl anymore. The name’s Philly. She doesn’t have time for this shit. Stop grieving. Start living. Grow up. This is one big psychoanalytical horror, I’m telling you. This family should be destroyed. Philly needs to hear the truth about what happened. But all she can hear is deafening silence. Because we don’t talk about these things at home. The only thing that breaks the deadly silence is the beats from Denmark’s best night club, ELSE I SNORE. That’s where DJ Philly plays her final set. What is the correct BPM of sorrow? Who will stay by her side until the bitter end? Ophelia for fans only. Parental advisory: explicit content.

Ophelia OnlyFans, darkly satirical reimagining of Hamlet’s world, set against the pulsing beats of Denmark’s hottest nightclub. When Philly’s mother Ophelia dies under suspicious circumstances, Philly, a visionary DJ, suspects foul play. Her father, Polonius (Pols), a high- ranking politician, harbours secrets that the relentless Moles Brothers are determined to unearth. They won’t stop digging for kompromat that could topple the elite.

Ophelia OnlyFans is a tale of power, voyeurism, and the cost of reinvention—and all this may just end in tears.

The ETC Drama Committee highlighted the humorous approach to an original rewriting of Hamlet for or about youngsters of now, adding that "the language, topics of conversation, and background stories of the characters fully convince that this work could inspire throughout Europe".

• Abel GONZÁLEZ MELO– Carrusel (Royal Lyceum Theatre; United Kingdom/Edinburgh)
• Andrii BONDARENKO – The Apparitions of Brody (Lesia Ukrainka Theatre, Ukraine/Lviv)
  
• Annet BREMEN – FUCK LOLITA (Het Zuidelijk Toneel, The Netherlands/Tilburg)
  
• Dragana LUKAN NIKOLOSKI– Anna (National Institution Macedonian National Theatre - Skopje, Northern Macedonia/Skopje)
  
• Emine Erdem ALPYÜRÜK– The Club of Disheartened (Turkish State Theatres General Directorate, Turkey/Ankara)
  
• Emőke KISS-VÉGH– Romance (Örkény István Theatre, Hungary/Budapest)
  
• Giorgos CHRISTODOULOU – Station Omega (National Theatre of Greece, Greece/Athens)
  
• Ján MIKUŠ – Sigma Werther (Slovak National Drama Theatre (Slovakia/Bratislava)
  
• Lisa ASCHAN – A Very Small Human (Göteborgs Stadsteater / Backa Teater, Sweden/Gothenburg)
  
• Maria MAUNSBACH – A really wonderful day (Folksteatern Göteborg, Sweden/Gothenburg)
  
• Markos GOIKOLEA– I’ve never been to Dublin (Teatro Arriaga,  Spain/Bilbao)
  
• Matteo CANIGLIA – Favola sismica (PAV, Italy/Rome)
  
• Noam BRUSILOVSKY – Fake Jews (Deutsches Theater Berlin, Germany/Berlin)
  
• Paulien GEERLINGS – Kantjil and the Tiger (De Toneelmakerij, The Netherlands/Amsterdam)
  
• Radmila VOJVODIĆ– Princess Ksenija od Montenegro (Montenegrin National Theatre, Montenegro/Podgorica)
  
• Tiago CORREIA – Fumo Centro (Cultural de Belém, Portugal/Lisbon)
  
• Tomáš RÁLIŠ – Ophelia OnlyFans (National Theatre Prague, Czech Republic/Prague)
  
• Tommaso FERMARIELLO – Familiare (Teatro Stabile del Veneto - Teatro Nazionale, Italy/Venice)