During these times of war, the Frankivsk Drama Theatre in Ivano-Frankivsk announced it had become a national theatre bunker, offering refuge, salvation, and vital assistance to all who need it during the war. Not just humanitarian, medical, and financial aid, but also morale-boosting creative support. Occasionally, in the Frankivsk Theatre’s legendary Shakespeare basement, they stage clandestine performances of plays for refugees and kids from Ivano-Frankivsk to cheer them up and inspire pleasant thoughts of a bright future, with victory and peacetime just around the corner. In the theatre’s basement, they perform Kotliarevsky’s Eneida – a patriotic, heroic play about the unbreakable Ukrainian spirit battling an enemy (named Turnus in Kotliarevsky’s poem, but in our reality: you-know-who). The basement has also hosted their famous Hamlet, acclaimed by leading British Shakespeare scholars before the war. Hamlet’s words (‘To be or not to be?’) now have an utterly different, hidden meaning, certainly not the same as prior to 24th February 2022.
These days, ‘To be or not to be?’ is a matter of life, death and victory, and God help us not to suffer any defeats on our front lines. Underlying the Shakespearean question of ‘To be or not to be?’ are themes of heaven (i.e. the peaceful, civilian life we all dream of) and hell (into which Ukraine’s cruel enemy wants to drag us all).
The activity of Ukrainian theatres during the aggression and hell has also been noted and commended in Europe. Just a few days ago, the director of the Zbigniew Raszewski Theatre Institute addressed Ukrainian theatre artists, mentioning that the Polish Ministry of Culture is gathering information on the needs of Ukrainian theatres (fire extinguishers, walkie-talkies, etc.) to help support them. This means that theatrical Europe does care about the cruel theatre currently unfolding in Ukrainian cities, fields, and all of our souls.
Even before 24th February 2022, I was considering writing a text for a portal, tentatively titled ‘Theatre of War’, about how Ukrainian theatres have staged this subject. I presumed it would cover gripping Ukrainian plays on military and pacifist themes: All Quiet on the Western Front and She is the Earth by the Frankivsk Drama Theatre; Bad Roads by Kyiv’s Drama and Comedy Theatre on the Left Bank of the Dnipro; as well as War and Three Comrades by the Ivan Franko Theatre in Kyiv.
As it transpired, time adjusted my creative plans. War has now morphed from stage plays into our day-to-day reality. Now, its explosions can break your heart and make you lose your mind…
P.S. I had already written the final sentence of my text on Ukrainian theatre in the context of Russian aggression when life itself brought this tragic theme to a tragic conclusion. On 18th March 2022, news agencies and social media were abuzz with news of a terrible event in central Mariupol: Russian aircraft had bombarded the Drama Theatre. The theatre was the largest shelter for local residents who had lost their homes in the relentless bombing. The day the theatre was destroyed no one could get to the ruins – where adults and children lay underneath. The bomb shelter was also covered in debris from its collapsed entrance. And this was a theatre that used to stage plays in both Ukrainian and Russian…
Originally written in Ukrainian, translated by Mark Bence, 18 March 2022