“Once you’ve got the chance you’ve got to be free. Come and raise the flag, get off of your knees.”
These are the first lines from a song from the rock musical “Got to Be Free” dedicated to the EuroMaidan Revolution. The words reflect the feelings of thousands of Ukrainians who came out onto the streets and stood up for their rights during the protests in 2013–2014.
Marking the fifth anniversary since the revolution, “Got to Be Free” will premiere in Kyiv on Feb. 23 and will be performed again at the local Theater on Podil venue.
The protests, also known as the Revolution of Dignity, started on Nov. 21 at Kyiv’s main square after former Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych announced he wasn’t going to sign Ukraine’s association agreement with the European Union.
After the first protesters were brutally beaten by the law enforcement on Nov. 30, they were joined by thousands of people around the country who took to the streets in protest against the state violence. The demonstrations grew into a three-month-long revolution, which led to deaths of more than a hundred protestors, murdered by the security forces. The revolution ended on Feb. 22 when Yanukovych was removed from the post by Ukrainian parliament and fled the country.
The Euromaidan Revolution was one of the most tragic times in the history of independent Ukraine but also an iconic event — a time of bravery and dedication to fighting for human rights.
First steps
The creation of the musical started with an album of songs written and composed by Volodymyr Lavrenchuk, 61, the chairman of the board of Raiffeisen Bank Aval in Ukraine.
The banker has long had the hobby of writing music and lyrics. He says that he was at the protest almost every day because he felt the urge to be there as a citizen of his country. And the revolution inspired Lavrenchuk to express his feelings in songs.
“These are not the memories, the songs were written during the revolution,” Lavrenchuk told the Kyiv Post. “Writing songs is not a planned process, it can’t be scheduled, it happens because emotions get laid down on the guitar.”
He says that he wasn’t sure if the songs would ever become public, but after they were combined into a 12-track album, many of Lavrenchuk’s friends involved in music and theater told him they could be a foundation for a whole story.
“These comments made me think that we can try to make a performance out of it,” he said. “And the musical format came later.”
A group of enthusiasts, including theater director Serhii Proskurnia, singer Ivan Leno, and the Minister of Culture Yevhen Nyshchuk, took up idea to later create a musical called “Got to Be Free.”
Actors and dancers perform the rock musical “Got to Be Free” dedicated to the EuroMaidan Revolution that ended President Viktor Yanukovych’s rule in 2014. The performance took place at the Bloor West Village Toronto Ukrainian Festival in Canada on Sept. 15, 2018.
The musical was first staged in 2016, and was occasionally performed for friends. In 2018, the team brought “Got to Be Free” to the Bloor West Village Toronto Ukrainian Festival in Canada and later performed in Lviv, a city of 721,000 located 500 kilometers west from Kyiv.
“Got to Be Free” reconstructs the revolutionary scene with barricades, car tires and the shields that the protesters used in order to protect themselves from riot police bullets.
The performance is a set of songs that are mostly in Ukrainian, but with some in English and with short dialogues in between.
The musical’s main characters are a woman and a man who fall in love amid the barricades, and the antagonist is the so-called titushka, a hired thug who supports the authorities and the law enforcement.
However, the musical’s plot is rather vague, its main focus is on the spirit of the revolution. The characters sing about freedom and values they stand for with a dance crew complementing the lyrics and music with expressive dance moves.
Lavrenchuk says that they wanted to create an emotional musical rather than a documentary. He says that the event is so historically significant that its documentary version would bring pathos with it, which the team wanted to avoid.
“There was a lot of light on Maidan,” Lavrenchuk said. “We wanted to show Kyiv citizens, Ukrainians, the way they were there.”
New version
Since its first version was written, various directors have worked with the musical, and it has transformed over the years.
The art director of Theater on Podil Vitalii Malakhov, 64, staged the new version of “Got to Be Free” for the upcoming performances in Kyiv. He says that unlike his previous colleagues, who tried to unite all the songs into one story, he decided to do the opposite and create 12 separate novels sharing one topic.
“This is more like impressions of different people where the same personalities appear but the storyline does not continue,” Malakhov told the Kyiv Post.
The director says that his theater experiments with various genres and they were happy to host “Got to Be Free,” which is the first musical to be performed in Theater on Podil.
Malakhov says that he always has fears about how the audience will receive a new play because their team tries to do unexpected things.
“My teacher used to say ‘I came to the theater, so surprise me.”
The musical features professional Ukrainian actors George Khostikoev and Dmytro Linartovych, as well as a newbie to the field, Maryna Bohun.
Bohun, 37, is a marketing and communications expert working at Raiffeisen Bank Aval who has the hobby of singing.
At first, she participated in recording the initial music album, and later proceeded to play one of the main characters, Malanka.
Bohun says that despite the lack of acting experience it wasn’t hard for her to take on this role because they have a lot in common.
Just like Malanka, the actress appreciates freedom, she’s not afraid of changes and is willing to take a risk and responsibility.
Apart from that, Bohun was one of the protestors herself back in 2013–2014, participating in building barricades and distributing food around the square.
“My role is not to play any role,” Bohun told the Kyiv Post.
The actress says that during the Euromaidan Revolution not everyone had necessary skills or knowledge to resist the authorities but they learned and did it anyway. And she says that in some way “Got to Be Free’ is a similar experiment.
“It is our cultural volunteerism.”
“Got to Be Free.” Theater on Podil. 20 Andriivskyi Uzviz St. Feb. 23. 6 p. m. Hr 500–900. March 23. 6 p. m. Hr 200–900.
