Ilya Chlaki was born in Moscow 29.04.1959, Russia. Since 1991 he has been living in Germany. Since 1996 he is a member of the Union of Writers of Germany and since 2008 a member of IFRW (The International Federation of Russian Writers). He is an author of more than 50 various plays (two-act, one-act, monologues), scripts of two children films in the famous Russian series "Eralash", many publications in literary magazines and in the Russian Internet literary media. He is an author of five books of plays – 1995 “New Plays” (5 plays) and 2004 “New Plays, book two” (9 plays), published in Moscow, 2012 “Theatre” published in USA (13 plays), 2013 “Plays” published in Germany (17 plays), 2014 “Four Plays about Germany and Russia” published in Germany,.
Publishing house "Drei Masken Verlag", Munich, keep copyrights for distribution in the German-speaking countries of his various plays, among which: "Hurricane", "Stuffy Night ", "What’s Your Name?..", "In Front of Doctor’s Door", "Two Girlfriends", and "And Our Ashes Will Be Scattered By the Wind…". Ilya Chlaki's plays has been translated into Bulgarian, Catalan, English, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Lithuanian, Romanian, Spanish languages. Performances of his plays have been shown the theatres of Byelorussia, Bulgaria, England, France, Germany, Kazakhstan, Latvia, Lithuania, Moldavia, Russia, Ukraine, USA

Literary prizes

2020: Literary Grant, Ventspils, Latvia, International Writers and Translators' House
2018: The play "The Violin" is the winner of the Theater Playwriting Award "Eurodram 2018"
(The Russian committee)
2017: The short story "The Sea and the Puddle", special tribute by the Artist House Ahrenshoop in the framework of the
Art Award 2017
2017: Literary Grant, Käthe-Dorsch – und Agnes-Straub – Stiftung, Germany
2017: Literary Grant, Ventspils, Latvia, International Writers and Translators' House
2016: The play "To Forget, to Remember" is the winner of the Theater Playwriting Award "Eurodram 2016"
(The Russian committee)
2015: Ilja Chlaki is a candidate for nomination for the award "St. Petersburgs Bronzen Lion" in the category
"Best contemporary dramatist"
2014: 3rd Place „Badenweiler“ Playwright Award, play “To Forget, to Remember”, Stuttgart, Germany
2012: 2nd Place „Badenweiler“ Playwright Award, play “The Intensive Letters”, Stuttgart, Germany
2010: International Literary Grant, Literaturatelier in Raron, Switzerland
2010: Final Short-List „Badenweiler“ Playwright Award, play “Alexey Suhonin”, Stuttgart, Germany
2009: Final Short-List Volodin’s Playwright Award, play “Alexey Suhonin” St. Petersburg, Russia
2009: 3rd Prize, Kempener Literature Award, play "Phone Inquiries", Germany
2009: International Literary Grant “Künstlerwohnung Chretzeturm”, Stein am Rhein, Switzerland
2009: The Special Jury Prize, Ein KULTURZONE-Projekt, Mini-Play, "The Clone", Germany
2008: International Literary Grant, Österreichische Gesellschaft für Literatur, Austria
2007–2008: International Literary Grant, Artist-in-Residence, PEN Center Vlaanderen, Belgium
2007: 1st Prize, Kempener Literature Award, play "In the Park", Germany
2007: Literary Grant, Käthe-Dorsch – und Agnes-Straub – Stiftung, Germany
2006: International Literary Grant, Künstlerhaus Lukas, Germany
2003–2004: International Literary Grant, Künstlerdorf Schöppingen, Germany
2003: International Literary Grant, Denkmalschmiede Höfgen, Studios International
2002–2003: Literary Grant, NDK e.V., Berlin, Germany
2000: Final round in the dramaturgic competition »Jakob-Michael-Reinhold-Lenz-Preis of the city Jena, 2000, «
"and our ashes will scatter on the ground...«
2000: Literary Grant Alfred-Doblin-Stipendium, Academy of Arts, Berlin, Germany
1999–2000: Literary Grant NDK e. V., Berlin (Arbeitsstipendium für Literatur, NDK e. V.), Germany
1998: Literary Grant of the land the Lower Saxony, Germany
1996: Literary Grant of the land the Lower Saxony, Germany
1992: Dramaturgic Grant, Eugene O'Neill Theater Center, USA, in the frame of this grant the play "The Spinning Top" was
performed by American actors
1991: 1st Prize, the play "The Spinning Top" wins competition of playwrights in Sheljkovo, Russia

ECHO

...The most interesting thing about the piece ("Intense Letters") is that we feel a kind of wonderful closeness to all the characters who appear one after the other: the old woman, the old man, the juvenile, the man, the woman, and so on...... There is a déjà vu-like feeling, as if we knew them, I can even remember their faces exactly, as if I were watching a video clip recorded in my own memory. I also find myself missing the characters who have left the scene, and I continue to think about them -what is this or that character doing now, how is he or she living now?

Tatsuaki Shimamori, director, Japan

...Still, what a charming, compelling piece! ("Intense Letters"). After reading it, we learn what people think when they are on the verge of life and death, when they die, because in this state, the human subconscious is switched on. We dream of discovering what happens to a person during this time.

Tatsuaki Shimamori, director, Japan

I am convinced that Chlaki‘s dramaturgy is a special form of exploration of the human psychology, polished dialogues; while you work with those texts you realize that they really are pioneering and at the same time follow the classic line of exploration of the human soul.

Nikolay Roshchin, Alexandrinsky Theatre's Principal Director

But the key point that is especially important is: Ilya Chlaki’s texts are exactly that: dramaturgical literature on a high level, literature that has the power to enrich the stage language of contemporary theatre.

Nikolay Roshchin, Alexandrinsky Theatre's Principal Director

Ilya Chlaki is one of the few modern Russian playwrights who got famous in Germany. His works were awarded many literary prizes. I have read many plays by I.Chlaki (there are more than 40 of them) – therefore I am fully confident to say that his work is a new contribution in the modern drama. (...) I fully agree with the famous theatre critic A.Swobodin, who wrote: “The author hears the drama, feels the dialogue, he has a keen eye and paradoxical attitude to plot construction.” His dialogues are brilliantly written and the style is reasonably minimalistic, due to which his plays are easy and interesting not only to watch, but also to read.

Fridrich Neznansky, writer, Russia, Germany

(...) Out of many young Russian authors we have chosen Ilya Chlaki, because in his plays he shows more originality. Based on the Russian tradition of drama and theatre his way of revealing changes in human mentality and social situation of the last decade is unique. (...)

Johann Ziller, Head of the Publishing House “Three Masks”, Germany

(...) In his plays there are always two main manifestations of human life – Loneliness and Love. Loneliness is some basic “constant”, in a way a retribution for the original sin. And Love is the only means to overcome Loneliness , sometimes just temporarily and very often only in dreams. Chlaki is a confirmed supporter of Love. That is why his plays are full of latent optimism, or – more right to say – of far-away and illusive Hope.The playwright treats Hope as well as Love and Loneliness as something that in their triad forms the Life of the Spirit. (...)

Yulius Edlis, writer, Executive Council of the European Society of Culture (ESC) member, Vice-president of the Russian Center of ESC, Russia

... I’ve never read anything that was so theatrical, so real, and so accurately recreated the atmosphere of the 1980s and 90s in Russia. Chlaki invented his own theater, as simple as that of his predecessors Becket and Ionesquo.

Aus dem Interview für Russischen Fernsehen RTR, Andrey Stankevitsch, Filmregisseur, Drehbuchautor

(...) Ilya Chlaki is undoubtedly a tragic writer. Not just an indifferent and cold-blooded chronicler of human pain, suffering and helplessness, he is a part of this world, its “resident”, who also suffers. More than that, he also takes the blame for the all-around pain upon himself, which makes his texts so different from the flow of talentless “black” drama of nowadays. Loneliness and desire to break up with the lonely world torture the author and his characters, they are together. He views his characters and their philistine world not as an outsider, not from his comfortable viewpoint of a know-it-all, but from and through himself. The constant presence of the author next to his characters fills Chlaki`s plays with fresh and hot blood and not with the watery solution of pity. (...)

Yulius Edlis, writer, Executive Council of the European Society of Culture (ESC) member, Vice-president of the Russian Center of ESC, Russia

(...) The presence of hope in his texts makes them different from traditional West- and East- European theatre of the absurd. (...)

Prof. Dr. W.Kosny, Institute of Slavistics, Berlin Frei University, Germany

„My Dear“ by Ilja Chlaki is „Hamlet“, as is any good play. Four hundred years later, „To be or not to be“ sounds strange – either you’ve read to many books, or you’re the ultimate idealist. Such a state is tragic... or comic.

Aus dem Interview für Russischen Fernsehen TV-6, A.Stankevitsch, Filmregisseur, Drehbuchautor, Russia

(…) Inner commentary of verbal or nonverbal nature is getting more and more palpable, because the words are polyphonical and it is often difficult for the audience to separate what they see and what they hear. The author plays with the fantasy of the spectators, leads them softly trough the emotional culminations and does not stop them at the key-points. His characters are desert islands, but they all have a common humane duty to find a way to each other. The influence of Gogol and Ionesco can be traced but not so obviously, only in the sense that I. Chlaki`s plays are fragmentary, they consist of incitement and relaxation and on the whole it is surely a distinctly original dramatic expression not to be mistaken for any other playwright. (…)

„Schaffhauser Bock“, "Bote vom Untersee und Rhein", Switzerland

...What I like best about his works is that being paradoxical and sometimes even absurd – they are very close to reality, to life. It is always easy to recognize his characters as somebody you know – well, our life is full of absurd situations and eccentric people. (...)

Masha Blumin-Terekhova, Dr. Philology