Underprivileged children gain new insights on life
In many languages the expression “chasing the bluebird” means searching for happiness.
A recent staging of “The Bluebird,” a 1909 play by Belgian symbolist Maurice Maeterlinck, gave a bunch of Kyiv’s underprivileged children new insight into this old saying.
The play depicts the journey of two penniless children, Kirkil and his sister Mikil, who are searching for a bird that promises happiness. After many adventures, they finally return home, their quest apparently unsuccessful – only to discover that the bluebird has been living in their own backyard all along.
The play premiered at Kyiv Molodoi Theater on May 28. The entire cast of 35 are children aged between 9 and 14 from a special school for abandoned and disturbed children. None of them had ever set foot on a stage before. It is part of the “Abandoned Talents” project, which aims to provide better education for Ukraine’s orphans. The staging and the premiere were sponsored by UNICEF, the Dutch Embassy and Kyiv’s City Administration.
Theatergoers were given a foretaste of the avian theme right in the foyer, where dozens of canaries and mockingbirds were chirping away in their cages. Meanwhile, children chatted anxiously as they waited for their schoolmates to appear on stage. For many, it was their first visit to the theater.
The first scene takes place on Christmas Eve. Kilkil and Mikil wake up in the middle of the night to stare through the windows of their wealthy neighbors, who are decorating their homes in preparation for Christmas Day. The children are startled when their neighbor – who says she is a fairy – appears in their home and asks them to find the bluebird of happiness to cure her sick granddaughter.
The children agree to find the bluebird. Before they start out on their quest, the fairy gives them a magic hat that helps them see into the souls of surrounding objects, like plants, animals, fire, water, light and bread. Even the children’s dog and cat begin to speak. Together with their newly animated friends, Kilkil and Mikil set out to catch the bluebird.
During their journey, the children come close to catching the bird a number of times. But every time it flies away. Eventually the children return home empty-handed. Instead, Kilkil presents another blue-colored bird to the fairy’s granddaughter, and she recovers.
The moral of the story is that the best way to attain happiness is to realize that you already possess it.
As well as being entertaining for children, the subtle handling of the theme of the pursuit of happiness means adults too can enjoy Bluebird.
Although the performance lacked the finesse of professional theaters and actors, the premiere was a resounding success.
“The premiere was a pleasant surprise for us, the young actors actually got together and tried hard,” said Anna Lebedeva, head of the Dutch-Ukrainian foundation Art, Culture and Science, which organized the performance. “At the dress rehearsal the day before the performance, only half of the cast showed up, because it was Kyiv Days and there was free ice cream at the zoo.”
This was a difficult cast to work with, Lebedeva admitted. The children all come from Kyiv’s boarding school #21 and either have been abandoned or suffer from various diseases including schizophrenia. During the rehearsals, they would argue with the play’s director, Yevhen Kurman, or fight among themselves.
However, Kurman was not discouraged by these difficulties. The production took a total of nine months’ preparation and Kurman offered everyone lessons in acting, make-up artistry, lighting and stage management.
The school’s administration believed that getting children involved in this type of project will help them overcome many of their problems.
“These children are ashamed of their social status. They never thought they could astonish anyone. But now they have a chance to be proud,” Lebedeva said.
For many it was also a life lesson: stop chasing the bluebird, because it has been there all along.
“Most children in orphanages these days live with a dream of being adopted by a family in the West,” Lebedeva said. “They forget that to achieve something they need to work hard daily. For them this play was their first adult experience.”
The Bluebird will go on tour in Ukraine this summer and return to Kyiv’s Molodoi Theater this fall.
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“Behind the Scenes,” an exhibit of sketches by three renowned theatrical costume and set designers, Fedir and Yaroslav Nirod and Anatoly Ikonikov will take place at ARTEast Gallery on June 21-24. The exhibition contains 200 sketches, many of which have been used in productions at the National Opera.
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The new opera “Moses” by composer Myroslav Skoryk will premiere at Kyiv’s National Opera on June 29, at 7 p.m. The opera is a Lviv Opera Theater production. It was commissioned and blessed by Pope John Paul II.
