SORRY FOR MY ENGLISH Will Have its UK Premiere at London's Tabernacle Theatre

The Warsaw based Teal House Foundation in association with Developing Artists and Bird&Carrot Productions has announced the UK premiere of Sorry for My English, an international theatre production led by renowned playwright and artistic director Ivan Vyrypaev, presented in London's Tabernacle Theatre for a limited run from January 30-31 2026.

A panel with Artistic Director Ivan Vryrypaev, the multiple award-winning exiled Russian Director who was exiled due to his vocal criticism of the Ukrainian war,  and the cast from the piece will take place after each show entitled: Re-Staging Identity: Theatre, Migration and Belonging.

Part of a wider EU project called Sorry for my Language and created by Ivan Vyrypaev and directed by the Lithuanian artist Aleksandr Spilevoj the piece is performed by an international ensemble of actors, musicians and theatre-makers from across Europe using humour to explore what it means to be an immigrant and living as an exiled artist in the UK.

Bringing together performers from Ukraine, Russia and Moldova living in countries across Europe including France, Germany and Poland on what it means to be an exiled artist, an immigrant, building your life and creating work in your second, third or even fourth language.

The artistic director of Teal House Foundation, Ivan Vryrypaev said: “This production of Sorry for My English is part of a larger international initiative titled Sorry for My Language. Within this framework, Teal House is developing a series of performances across multiple countries including Georgia, Estonia, Lithuania, France and Germany. In each location, the format adapts to the local linguistic reality: Sorry for My German, Sorry for My French, Sorry for My Georgian, and so on. The concept highlights a shared global experience: actors living and working in environments where they are not native speakers, yet striving to express themselves with authenticity, dignity, and emotional precision. Sorry for My Language will become a large-scale, interconnected theatrical platform that supports displaced and multilingual performers worldwide. It gives artists the freedom to “play themselves” in the language of their new home, to speak openly about the challenges and beauty of crossing linguistic and cultural borders, and to cultivate deeper mutual understanding within local audiences. The English-language version presented here is the first step in building this global project.”

Part of a wider project, Teal House Foundation is developing a series of performances across Georgia, Estonia, Lithuania, France and Germany. 

The pieces create a shared global experience - actors living and working in environments where they are not native speakers, yet striving to express themselves with authenticity, dignity, and emotional precision.

About the Show

Imagine being forced away from the country you were born in. The first challenge is to live, then create in a second language.  Sorry for My English reflects the bittersweet beauty (and often hilarious quirks) of trying to voice love, loss and belonging in words that are unfamiliar.

 

The performance blends monologues, poetry, music and movement, drawing on original texts written by the performers themselves all of whom are living in exile because of who they are or what they have stood up for. 

 

Created and performed by artists in exile from across the world, Sorry for My English turns linguistic imperfection into a stand up comedy-cum-theatrical performance to connect English-speaking audiences together and share in the difficulties of creating in a foreign language.

 

Raw, funny, and deeply moving, Sorry for My English invites audiences to witness the courage of making a home in a language that doesn't yet fully feel like one's own.

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