Our Class, the award-winning drama by Polish playwright Tadeusz Slobodzianek,  has premiered in Toronto.

The play (whose title is also the name of Poland’s most popular social networking web site, naszaklasa.pl) focuses on a group of Jewish and Catholic classmates in Poland from 1925, as they live through the horrors of World War II and the Holocaust and see some of their old friendships being smashed.

Our Class refers indirectly, without mentioning the place by name, to the killing of Jews in Jedwabne by their Polish neighbours in 1941. It examines how nationality, religion and ideology could become more important than friendship and how could one’s classmate become the enemy.

The production is staged at the Berkeley Street Theatre Downstairs until 30 April.

The world premiere of Our Class was given in September 2009 at the National Theatre in London. In the autumn of 2010 it had its Polish premiere at the Na Woli Theatre in Warsaw. The play won the 2010 Nike Prize, one of Poland’s most prestigious literary awards. (mk/jb)