Two Ukrainian Plays at Finborough Theatre

Two Ukrainian Plays is part of the Worldwide Ukrainian Play Readings series, which presents work from contemporary Ukrainian playwrights to an English-speaking audience. As well as this double bill performance, Finborough Theatre is also running #VoicesfromUkraine, an online series of translated work. These two plays provide insight into the ongoing Ukrainian-Russian conflict through the eyes of people who have seen it first-hand. These plays explore nationalism, loyalty, masculinity, human cruelty, distorted rhetoric and how people find light when faced with extreme adversity.

Take the Rubbish out, Sasha, is a surreal tale of two women dealing with the aftermath of bereavement as the country around them prepares for war. Katya (Amanda Ryan) is a nagging wife who always puts her husband down, but she clearly loves him in a way she’ll never be able to tell him. Sasha (Alan Cox) has died suddenly of a heart attack, but his spirit is still about, bickering with his wife, commiserating with his stepdaughter Oskana (Issy Knowles) and, eventually, going back to war. The dynamic between the three characters is interesting because it says something important about our inability to show explicit love for the people who matter to us, even if it’s all we want to do. There is genuine warmth between Ryan, Knowles and Cox, an easy familial intimacy which makes their relationships convincing and gives the quarrelling a sweet edge, as it’s clear how much these people love each other.

The script explores Ukraine’s changing identity through Sasha, an officer and USSR freestyle wrestling champion whose loyalty to his country apparently extends beyond death. The dance sequences in this play feel a little confusing, especially in such a small space, and feel stretched out, but it is also an interesting way of bringing a broader context into the show.

Based on the true story of Iryna Dovgan, a Ukrainian woman who was tortured by Russian troops after being discovered delivering supplies to Ukrainian soldiers, Pussycat in Memory of Darkness offers a heavy and important insight into the realities of the Russian-Ukrainian war in 2014. At its most powerful, this one-woman play shows how doublespeak and a need to make sense of the world can induce those around you to do terrible things. The nationalist Ukrainian troops are dubbed fascists and traitors, whilst Russian soldiers are named liberators even as they pillage, torture and plant mines which maim local children. Kristin Milward brings an impressive amount of energy and emotional range, jumping between desperate mania and sheer devastation easily. It’s uncomfortable to watch at times, but that’s the point.

Pussycat in Memory of Darkness highlights how people can find meaning even in the bleakest of situations through care for people and animals, and how this can sustain us even as the world turns against us. It’s emotionally draining and at times a little hard to follow, but it also provides a crucial understanding of a conflict that some of us in the UK are still just beginning to comprehend.

Sophia Moss

Two Ukrainian Plays is at Finborough Theatre from 9^th August until 3^rd September 2022. For further information or to book visit the theatre’s website here.