Ukrainian playwright Natalia Vorozhbit is the face of a new international theatrical revolution. Several years ago, Royal Shakespeare Company in London approached Vorozhbit to write a play. A native of Kyiv, she was working in Moscow then.
Ukrainian playwright Natalia Vorozhbit is the face of a new international theatrical revolution. Several years ago, Royal Shakespeare Company in London approached Vorozhbit to write a play. A native of Kyiv, she was working in Moscow then.
Still a young playwright – only in her 30s – Vorozhbit had wanted to explore the Holodomor, the 1932-1933 Stalin-instigated famine that killed millions of Ukrainians, based on the stories she had heard from her grandmother.
The result was the play called “The Grain Store” – a sometimes humorous and deeply dramatic struggle of how Soviet collectivization took away one Ukrainian community’s land, religion and independence.
Thirsting for new ideas, Western theaters in recent years have been looking east to young playwrights like Vorozhbit for inspiration. Another theater, the London-based Royal Court, has also commissioned two plays from Vorozhbit.
While Western theater and neighboring Russia are willing to experiment with new voices, Vorozhbit doesn’t foresee the same thing happening in Ukraine soon.
Ukrainian theater has been stuck in a tradition of dramatic musical productions that date back to the Soviet days. Much of today’s repertoire, whether it is Ivan Kotlyarevsky’s “Natalka Poltavka” or “Zaporozhets za Dunayem,” harks back to that era. Cultural and economic limitations imposed on Ukraine’s theatrical community mean audiences are left seeing the same plays again and again.
Society needs to be aroused. But many theatre directors don’t want to break that tradition.”– Oleh Stephan, an actor with Lviv’s renowned Les Kurbas Theatre.
Vorozhbit grabs her audience with contemporary issues. Her play “The Khomenko Family Chronicles” is the story of two parents who tell their bedridden son how they met and incorporates the story of Chornobyl and New York’s Twin Towers. It was performed at the Royal Court in 2007.
The other, which Vorozhbit is currently writing, will involve a plane, a London hotel and musings by a heroine. The deadline is approaching fast, she said.
Ukraine cries out for more contemporary voices. “Society needs to be aroused,” Oleh Stephan, an actor with Lviv’s renowned Les Kurbas Theatre said. But many theatre directors “don’t want to break that tradition.”
Western audiences apparently also lack new talent. They love the new shows, said Elyse Dodgson, the head of the international department at the Royal Court Theatre.
Appearing recently at Kyiv’s “Ye” bookstore, which sponsored a presentation with Dodgson and herself, Vorozhbit said she was amazed by the depth of research the Shakespeare company undertook – including a trip to Ukraine – to guarantee the Holodomor-themed production had authenticity.
“Even down to the clothing and songs,” she said.
Vorozhbit can attribute part of her international success to Dodgson, whose ancestors come from Ukraine, and who has traveled the globe in search of new talent.
The Royal Court is also producing the play “Pagans,” penned by Anna Yablonskaya, a young playwright who died in Moscow on Jan. 24 when a suicide bomber entered that city’s Domodedovo airport and killed 36 people.
“Pagans” will be staged in London on April 7.
Being a playwright is a hobby. Many just write for themselves.”
– Natalia Vorozhbit, Ukrainian playwright.
In an interview with the Kyiv Post, Dodgson said that 15 years ago she had trouble getting British audiences to see plays written by foreigners. Now, many of the shows the theater puts on by international playwrights are sold out. Ultimately, many of the productions underscore that no matter where one lives, there is a shared human experience, she said.
Yablonskaya’s experience, for instance, highlights the challenge faced by many Ukrainian playwrights. She was more widely known outside her homeland and most of her plays were staged abroad.
The lack of recognition and prestige means most Ukrainians playwrights are not able to make a living off writing plays. “Being a playwright is a hobby,” Vorozhbit said. “Many just write for themselves.”
Her situation is no different. Despite her international success and association with some of the world’s leading theatrical companies, Vorozhbit makes her living as the head script writer for STB, the Ukrainian television station.
Her days are filled with writing stories for the station’s documentaries, as well as television shows commissioned for Russia. The more obtuse the show, the higher the audience rating, she said sadly.
Kyiv Post staff writer Natalia A. Feduschak can be reached at [email protected].
