Ivan Uryvskyi is staging Ivan Franko's “Stolen Happiness” in Lviv, and in Kyiv is the premiere of the play “Orlando” based on the novel by Virginia Woolf: we have collected the most interesting theatrical events of March that you cannot miss.
“Orlando”
KIT (VDNG), March 1
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The cult novel “Orlando” by Virginia Woolf from 1928 is being staged in Ukraine for the first time. It is a complex, aesthetic, modernist story about Orlando, a hero who lived for 300 years and was reincarnated from a woman to a man and back into a woman. The story of Orlando begins in the era of Queen Elizabeth I, who has a crush on the handsome poet Orlando; continues in Constantinople, where Orlando wakes up in a woman's body, and ends in England at the beginning of the 20th century, when Orlando becomes a mother and a writer. The production of the play was initiated by the actress of the Frank Theater Marina Koshkina: this is an independent project in which star Ukrainian artists from various theaters participate – among them Ilya Choporov, known for the musical “Cabaret”, Olena Khokhlatkina, who plays in the play “The Witch of Konotop” at the Frank Theater. The director of the performance is Tetyana Kosteniuk, a student of Ivan Uryvsky's workshop and co-director of the theater program “Vyriyu”.
“More beauty than longing”
Theater on Podil, March 6–8
The play “More Beauty Than Longing” is based on real facts and tells about the private world of Lesya Ukrainka. The writer spent the winter in Egypt to recover, and now returns to the Caucasus to her husband. In her mother's apartment, Lesya spends the evening in a cozy conversation with her two sisters, mother, daughter-in-law and son-in-law. Together they share written and heard stories, recorded songs, impressions from distant places and times.
The director of the play is Richard Nelson, and Kateryna Shenfeld plays Lesya Ukrainka.
“Ballad of Stolen Happiness”
Maria Zankovetska Theater, March 6–8
At the Maria Zankovetska Theater in Lviv, director Ivan Uryvskyi is presenting his own version of Franko's play “Stolen Happiness” this spring, a classic story about betrayal and the impossibility of building happiness on the misfortune of another. The play's outline, written by Ivan Franko in 1893, has been updated by modern playwright Lyudmila Tymoshenko.
Here's how the team talks about the play: “For the Maria Zankovetska Theater, this Frankish work is special. Since 1922, each generation of Zankovetska residents has staged its own version of “Stolen Happiness,” in which its brightest representatives played. After a century-long history of the play on our stage, we invited a new reading of Ivan Uryvsky's work to be performed. In his performances, the present is closely intertwined with the past, “this moment” with the eternal.”
“Don Juan”
National Operetta, March 1
The Operetta Theater staged one of Mozart's most popular operas, “Don Giovanni,” which tells the story of the legendary libertine Don Juan and Donna Anna. A new interpretation of the opera is being prepared by young director Stanislav Ivanov: in his interpretation, Don Juan appears not as a myth, but as a reflection of collective inaction and fear of taking responsibility. This is an opera that simultaneously enchants, entertains, asks uncomfortable questions, and does not leave anyone indifferent, the theater says.
“Lesson”
Maly Theater, March 11 and 12
The Maly Theater is staging one of the most famous absurdist works of world literature, Eugene Ionesco's “The Lesson.” According to the plot, a modest student comes to the professor for a private lesson. At first, it's arithmetic and grammar, but later the usual lesson begins to turn into a duel: language becomes an instrument of power, knowledge a form of violence, and learning a mechanism of subjugation. What was supposed to enlighten turns into darkness… Is humanity capable of working on its mistakes in the absurdity in which it lives? Is this the end of civilization?
“Builder Solnes”
Lesya Ukrainka National Academic Drama Theater, March 20
Director Dmitry Bogomazov, known for the performances of “Tartuffe” and “Lady of Arles” at the Frank Theater, together with artist Petr Bogomazov (“Macbeth”, “Caligula”) stage a metaphorical and symbolic play by the classic of Norwegian dramaturgy Henrik Ibsen “The Builder Solnes”. The 1892 play tells the story of Hallvard Solnes, a successful architect who is going through a crisis. His career is growing rapidly, but he is increasingly overcome by fear: the talented younger generation may surpass him. One day, a young woman, Hilda Vangel, comes to his workshop – and with her, the shadows of the past return, because Hilda is the woman he met 10 years ago and promised to make her a princess. Now Hilda has come as promised…