The musical world premiere "Chararkov! Charkov!"

This is the world premiere performance of Serhiy Zhadan's play, translated by Adam Pomorski. The text was commissioned by the Polish Theatre in Warsaw. The play, in musical form, tells a story inspired by the fate of the avant-garde theatre Berezil and its creator - director-reformer Łeś Kurbas, who was active in Kharkov in the years 1925-1933. PREMIERE March 22, 2024, Slawomir Mrożek Chamber Stage.

It tells the story of conflicts between the city and the theater, the theater director and the director, the director and the audience, the director and the actors.... The fate of Kurbas becomes a metaphor for the fate of any artist - or perhaps any of us - "Everyman" fighting for ideals.

Kharkiv is a city with a rich history and culture. The cradle of the Ukrainian avant-garde. In the 1920s.Outstanding artists - not only writers, but also painters, sculptors, filmmakers - lived and worked there, dubbed the "Shattered Revival" or the "Shattered Generation." Most of them lost their lives during the Stalinist purge in the 1930s, and their iniquitous, according to the Soviet government, work was erased from the official history of Ukrainian culture for decades to come.

Oleksandr Zenon Kurbas was a Ukrainian actor and director. In 1922, he founded the philosophical and political theater Berezil - seeking new forms of expression for Ukrainian drama. In 1933 he was arrested. A year later, in a sham trial, he was sentenced to five years in the gulag for participation in an alleged Ukrainian terrorist organization.

In November 1937, Leś Kurbas was killed in a mass execution, along with dozens of other Ukrainian artists and activists social activists, in the forests of Sandarmoch in Karelia. Together with mass graves lie there the victims of the "Great Terror" of 1937-1938, there may be as many as 10,000 of them.

Serhiy Zhadan

CHARKOV! CHARKOV!

Translation: Adam Pomorski

Directed by: Svitlana Oleshko

Set and costume design: Katarzyna Zawistowska
Music: Noam Zylberberg

Lighting: Paweł Śmiałek

Vocal tutoring: Katarzyna Winiarska

Choreography: Maria Lozova

Characterization (cinematography): Olena Homutetska

Realization of recordings: Piotr Kulakowski - Fast Frame
OBSERVER
Dorota Bzdyla, Jakub Kordas, Michał Kurek, Modest Ruciński

In projections:
Dorota Bzdyla, Bernadetta Statkiewicz, Michał Kurek, Jakub Kordas, Modest Ruciński, Andrzej Seweryn