An extraordinarily powerful collection of dramatic responses to the conflict in Ukraine
This February marked four years since Vladimir Putin enacted Russia’s 'special exercise', the invasion of Ukraine. Support has come flooding in from across the globe, including among the arts and theatre community. In the UK, Nicolas Kent (co-director of The Great Game: Afghanistan) has conceived and curated a dramatic response in the shape of five powerful plays entitled Ukraine Unbroken: A Nation’s Fight for Freedom, which charts 12 turbulent years of modern Ukrainian history, from the 2014 Maidan protests to Russia’s full-scale 2022 invasion.
Six performers share the roles throughout all five plays, linked by musician Mariia Petrovska, who plays live bandura (a Ukrainian string instrument). Her magical and evocative sound evokes the mood with not only her music, but also her personal story. Petrovska fled Ukraine for the UK with her parents in May 2022 and is now studying songwriting and performance at BIMM Music Institute in Manchester.
First up is Always by Jonathan Myerson, which builds tension from the start as it documents a married couple’s experience of the violent Maidan protests. Played by Sally Giles and David Michaels, the couple watches from their Kyiv hotel window as demonstrators in Maidan Square below defy troops sent to subdue them. It is the1990s, a heady longing for independence hangs in the air, and the couple’s son is in the thick of the action – and danger. Dad is traditionally pro-Russian, while Mum empathises with the son. The entrance of a breakfast trolley – apparently wheeled by a pair of waiters – seems almost comical, until it becomes clear that it bears more pistols than pastries… Moments of humour like these leaven the suspense, which is high in every play, and underline the seriousness of the life and death situations we're witnessing, both as an audience and in the news.
In David Edgar's Five Day War, the audience is recruited to be harangued by potential, and opportunistic, hopefuls being interviewed for posts in the government that Russia plans to put in place when it wins control of Ukraine. Elsewhere we observe the plight of a Ukrainian man (Ian Bonar) struggling to sleep in Natalka Vorozhbit’s Three Mates (eloquently translated by Sasha Dugdale). He tosses and turns in bed as he juggles the impossible alternatives to joining or avoiding the draft.
Pressures build to an almost unbearable level in David Greig's Wretched Things, which is set on the front line, where Ukrainian fighters agonise over whether or not to help an unconscious wounded Korean soldier. Finally, and perhaps the most moving, is Taken by Cat Goscovitch. The play personifies the horrific reality of thousands of Ukrainian children abducted by Russia and ‘reprogrammed’ to be good little Russians. Clara Read and Jade Williams are truly affecting as the distraught mother Anna and missing 12-year-old daughter Lilya, whose story we see unfold over two harrowing years.
Played on a versatile set by Michael Taylor, Ukraine Unbroken presents a vital and extraordinarily moving insight into the conflict that illuminates and lives up to its inspired and defiant title.
By Judi Herman
Photos by Tristram Kenton
Ukraine Unbroken runs Friday 27 February – Saturday 28 March. 7.30pm, 2.30pm (Thu & Sat only). From £15. Arcola Theatre, London, E8 3DL. arcolatheatre.com
Listen to our interview with playwright Cat Goscovitch on JR OutLoud.