The LAVA Student Laboratory Theatre is a team of young, passionate artists who strive to create a new, contemporary Ukrainian theatre.
The theater was formed on the basis of fourth-year acting students of the Faculty of Culture and Arts at the Ivan Franko National University of Lviv in 2024.
Over the year of its existence, the LAVA Laboratory Theater has created a competitive theatrical environment in Lviv, which gathers proactive young artists around it.
Its current repertoire includes seven productions: «The Good Person of Szechwan» by Bertolt Brecht, «Mad Dogs» by Serhii Klymets, «The Tale of Igor’s Campaign» by Nina Zakhozhenko, «Cabaret. Doghouse» based on the works of the Ukrainian literary group Bu-Ba-Bu, «The Nativity Play. Night Before Dawn» based on texts from the Sokyrnytsia Nativity, Sex education. Girl’s Edition by Nina Zakhozhenko, and «MAUS» based on the graphic novel by Art Spiegelman.
The LAVA team builds its work on principles and values developed through open dialogue, including creative self-awareness, mutual respect, and love for humanity.
“It’s not enough for us to study the achievements of our predecessors. We want to take our ‘LAVA’ to the streets, making it the cornerstone of new, living creation. This is our stage — open to everyone, a platform from which we speak about what is honest, uncomfortable, painful, funny, ironic, loud, tender, and real. Our ‘LAVA’ is a space for free search and exploration. Our goal is to create a living theatre for the human being and about the human being”, — from the Manifesto of the LAVA Student Laboratory Theatre.
During its activity, the theatre has collaborated with venues such as the Lesia Theatre (Lviv), 48 Space (Ternopil), the Playwrights’ Theatre (Kyiv), and the House of Sound (Lviv), and has participated in Lviv-based festivals «Faine.Misto» and «Golden Lion».
LAVA’s projects have been covered by numerous Ukrainian media outlets, including «GalInfo», «Lvivska Poshta», «TV-4», «Leopolis News», NGO «Bilkis», «Hromadske Radio», «Suspilne Television», online media «Bunt», and «Pershyi Zakhidnyi TV Channel».
The LAVA Laboratory Student Theater strives to create a financially stable, competitive, and collaborative environment for young artists of contemporary Ukrainian theater, which will expand the range of its cooperation both in Ukraine and abroad.
Sex education. Girl’s Edition
A post-documentary performance about growing up, shame, and self-acceptance
“Be polite — and you’ll get a candy for the holiday.
Don’t do what you’ll be ashamed of later.
Tell your parents what you did last night.”
Sex education is terra incognita.
We are born with bodies but no manuals. With minds that stage their own performances.
We play this game without knowing the rules — as we can, as we dare.
Even a psychologist can’t tell where the goal ends and the foul begins.
They simply call it experience.
SEX EDUCATION is a raw, tender, and courageous story about knowing and accepting oneself.
About growing up without handbooks, job interviews without CVs, and love without limits.
On stage — seven young women, transforming their personal stories into a theatrical manifesto.
They speak aloud about what society prefers to hide in silence:
first periods, body changes, hormonal storms, bullying, social inequality, eating disorders, first relationships, exploring sexuality, setting boundaries, and the bruises that later turn into wisdom.
It is a post-documentary journey of a generation growing up amidst double standards —
between the fear of being “too much” and the desire to be free.
The setting — a school gymnasium, saturated with the smell of sweat, disappointment, and honesty.
Here, between warm-ups and physical tests, theatre becomes confession:
provocative, funny, and painfully real.
SEX EDUCATION is not a lesson in anatomy.
It is a mirror performance — where every spectator recognizes their own taboos, their own “fouls”, and perhaps, their own freedom.
Length of production: 80 minutes
Venue: Theatre on Orlí Street
Performance dates: 15.4. 11:45; 15.4. 16:30
Production language: Ukrainian, English subtitles
