MykolaÌýKulish’s playÌý²Ñ²¹°ì±ô±ð²Ô²¹Ìý³Ò°ù²¹²õ²¹Ìýis the story of a thirteen year-old girl whoÌýdreams of life in the Soviet Union and struggles to distinguishÌýreality from fantasy.ÌýIn September 1933, under the direction ofÌýLesÌýKurbas,Ìýit was performed at gunpoint before a crowd of GPU agents, the Repertoire Committee and Politburo of Soviet Ukraine. The play was subsequently banned; Kulish was later declared a ‘bourgeois-nationalist' playwright and, like Kurbas, executed by the Soviet regimeÌýin 1937.
In 2017, Maria Montague, the °ÄÃÅÁùºÏ²Ê¿ª½±¼Ç¼ University Amateur Dramatic Club and °ÄÃÅÁùºÏ²Ê¿ª½±¼Ç¼ Ukrainian Studies are bringing the play to life in its first-ever English-language production.
It is the second theatrical collaboration between °ÄÃÅÁùºÏ²Ê¿ª½±¼Ç¼ Ukrainian Studies and Montague, who is an alumna of the Ukrainian Studies undergraduate programme and a current MPhil candidate at °ÄÃÅÁùºÏ²Ê¿ª½±¼Ç¼ researching Kurbas'sÌýpractice of peretvorennia or 'transformation'. Her verbatim play on the war in Donbas -- The Summer Before Everything,Ìýco-authored with °ÄÃÅÁùºÏ²Ê¿ª½±¼Ç¼'s Bohdan Tokarskyi --Ìýpremiered at the Junction in °ÄÃÅÁùºÏ²Ê¿ª½±¼Ç¼ and toured the United Kingdom in 2016.
'I am so excited to be working with °ÄÃÅÁùºÏ²Ê¿ª½±¼Ç¼ Ukrainian StudiesÌýto bring the first English translation of MaklenaÌýto the stage', said Montague. She credits Marta Jenkala, °ÄÃÅÁùºÏ²Ê¿ª½±¼Ç¼'s Lector in Ukrainian, for her steadfast support in navigating the complexities of the Ukrainian text.
Montague's production ofÌý²Ñ²¹°ì±ô±ð²Ô²¹ÌýbeginsÌýwith a sneak preview on 11 June in °ÄÃÅÁùºÏ²Ê¿ª½±¼Ç¼, where actors will perform a rehearsed reading of the play at the ADC Theatre. It will then travel to the Edinburgh Fringe Festival for a run in the summer.Ìý'All the profits from the rehearsed reading in °ÄÃÅÁùºÏ²Ê¿ª½±¼Ç¼ will go toward helping our company with living costs at the Fringe', noted Montague.
'Since its launch in 2008, °ÄÃÅÁùºÏ²Ê¿ª½±¼Ç¼ Ukrainian Studies has sought to advance knowledge of Ukraine through innovative teaching, research and public outreach', said Dr Rory Finnin, Director of the °ÄÃÅÁùºÏ²Ê¿ª½±¼Ç¼ Ukrainian Studies programme and Head of the Department of Slavonic Studies at the °ÄÃÅÁùºÏ²Ê¿ª½±¼Ç¼.Ìý'Maria Montague's production ofÌý²Ñ²¹°ì±ô±ð²Ô²¹Ìýis a striking exampleÌýof what can happen when talented and engaged undergraduates in Ukrainian Studies pursue their academic interest in Ukraine at postgraduate level and channel it into new directions. Now English-language audiences will encounter the work of Mykola Kulish, Ukraine's greatest twentieth-century playwright,Ìýfrom a fresh perspective. We cannot wait to see what happens next.'