The Tailor of Inverness at Finborough Theatre

“I come from a farm, from the forests and fields of green Ukraine. From the resettlement camps of Germany.
From the beaches of the Adriatic. ...And the cool air of Inverness."

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Off West End Award Nomination Performance Piece – Matthew Zajac

A true story of journeys of how a boy who grew up on a farm in Galicia (then in Eastern Poland, now in Western Ukraine) came to be a tailor in Inverness…

His life spanned most of the 20th century. Taken prisoner by the Soviets in 1939 and forced to work, he was freed in an amnesty after the Nazi invasion of the Soviet Union, and joined the thousands of Poles fighting with the British Army in North Africa and Italy. He was then resettled in Britain in 1948, joining his brother in Glasgow.

This is the story he told.

But was the tailor really who he said he was?

Combining storytelling, songs, poetry and physicality with a rich soundscape of live fiddle music and effects, Matthew Zajac’s stunning play about his Polish father has entranced over 40,000 people, playing in a huge variety of venues in twelve countries, from sold-out runs in prestigious theatres in cities such as New York, Adelaide, Kyiv, Malmo, Glasgow, Edinburgh, Brussels, Dublin, Lublin, Lviv, Copenhagen and Berlin to tiny village halls in the Scottish Highlands. Its many awards include a Scotsman Fringe First, The Stage Best Solo Performer Award and Best Actor at the CATS (Critics Awards for Theatre In Scotland) Awards.

A long overdue opportunity for London to see this unforgettable story of displacement and survival in war-torn Europe – a powerful allegory for all victims of war.