A dismal musical comedy about witches has Ukraine enthralled. Here is why

A scene from a Ukrainian manufacturing of The Witch of Konotop. On the window, Olena, performed via Mariia Rudynska, is the affection pastime of the principle personality however does now not love him again. And a three-witch refrain is noticed proper.

Ivan Franko Theater

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Ivan Franko Theater

KYIV, Ukraine — Witches are having a second in Ukraine. Each feared and respected, those beings are idea to own supernatural powers that can be utilized for nice and dangerous. Over the centuries, witches were blamed for a wide variety of items going down to Ukrainians: droughts, floods, illnesses — even falling in love and beginning wars. Now they have got taken heart degree in a dismal musical comedy titled The Witch of Konotop, with performances promoting out all summer time on the ancient Ivan Franko Theater within the capital Kyiv. Folklore dropped at lifestyles In accordance with the 1833 satirical fiction via Ukrainian author Hryhorii Kvitka-Osnovianenko, the tale pokes a laugh at Ukrainian literature’s tendency to concentrate on unhappiness and tragedy. It takes position within the 1600s and follows the principle personality, Zabryokha, a Cossack army chief, in his unsuccessful adventure to get rid of witches whom he blames for his misfortunes.

All the way through the fast paced, witty hour-and-a-half manufacturing, the target market is handled to fantastically detailed Ukrainian people costumes and surprising vocals set to standard Ukrainian song.

Main character Zabryokha, played by Nazar Zadniprovskyi, and his cunning assistant, Pistryok, played by Mykailo Kukuyuk, spend much of the play blaming others for their misfortunes and conspiring. They eventually turn to a witch for help, in hopes she can change their fates.

Primary personality Zabryokha, performed via Nazar Zadniprovskyi, and his crafty assistant, Pistryok, performed via Mykailo Kukuyuk, spend a lot of the play blaming others for his or her misfortunes and conspiring. They in the end flip to a witch for assist, in hopes she will be able to trade their fates.

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Ivan Franko Theater

There’s rejection, there may be love. And there may be, after all, a witch hunt. Moreover, in a twist that echoes nowadays, the principle characters obtain orders to enroll in a marketing campaign to fend off an overreaching czarist Russia.

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One play, many takeaways Lifestyles beneath a sinister Russian danger may well be the obvious theme from this play. But, a handy guide a rough survey of the solid and target market at a up to date efficiency unearths the manufacturing’s true flexibility. “Don’t kill ladies, don’t mess with ladies,” says actress Kateryna Artemenko, who performs probably the most townswomen improper for a witch. She spoke to NPR behind the scenes sooner than the display. “No, it isn’t a comic story, after all,” Artemenko says. “The primary message is set folks seeking to idiot their future, however future will in finding them.” Actor Nazar Zadniprovskyi, who performs the ill-fated Cossack commander Zabryokha, perspectives this play as a lesson in heading off accountability. The 2 lead characters keep away from going to army drills so that they don’t have to visit struggle, he says, and many of us see a parallel with Ukrainian males dodging conscription nowadays.

Zadniprovskyi additionally attributes the play’s recognition to the clips that experience long gone viral on social media. There, Ukrainians from all walks of lifestyles weigh in.

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Target audience member Markian Halabala of Kyiv says seeing buzz concerning the play on-line is what first piqued his pastime. He says it used to be tough to get tickets since the play sells out so briefly. When he after all noticed it, he felt the message used to be that you just shouldn’t intervene in God’s will — like Zabryokha does within the play when he asks a witch to forged a spell on a lady to make her fall in love with him, even supposing she loves somebody else. Halabala likens it to Russian President Vladimir Putin seeking to intervene in Ukraine’s trail ahead as an unbiased country. On the other hand, theatergoer Olha Vasylevshka of Kharkiv says she thinks the play is set love. “After all if the affection is right, it doesn’t want any out of doors help,” she says, giggling. “But when the affection isn’t true, not anything can assist it, now not even a witch.” Bought-out displays Critics say audiences’ many interpretations of The Witch of Konotop are only one reason why it’s been so well-liked. Ivan Franko Theater press liaison Olena Kyrychenko-Povolocka informed NPR the manufacturing has crammed their just about 800-seat space for each and every efficiency this summer time and she or he expects to proceed that luck. The play has dates on its website online thru mid-September. One more reason for the play’s recognition could also be its ties not to handiest Ukrainian folklore, but additionally to Ukraine’s real-life the city of Konotop recognized for witches.

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Close to the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion in 2022, a video surfaced on-line of a lady shouting at a Russian soldier sitting atop a tank. “Do you even know the place you’re?” the lady shouts in a raspy voice. “You’re in Konotop — each and every 2d girl here’s a witch.” She is going directly to warn the soldier he’s going to by no means get an erection once more. The video went viral in Ukraine, now not simply as a result of the lady’s defiance, but additionally since the video used to be from Konotop and Ukrainians in an instant were given the reference.

Promotional photo from the dark, musical-comedy The Witch of Konotop

Witches have lengthy been a staple of Ukrainian folklore. Believed to have other-worldly powers, they have been continuously scapegoats for when dangerous issues came about — akin to droughts, floods or illness. Within the play, the witches — noticed right here performed via Anna Rudenko, Anastasiia Rula and Kateryna Artemenko — function a refrain and a plot software.

Ivan Franko Theater

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Ivan Franko Theater

There’s been an total push to have a good time Ukrainian tradition and literature since Russia’s invasion. Putin has time and again mentioned victory approach not anything in need of Ukraine now not simply dropping its sovereignty — but additionally its id.

Ukrainians’ renewed pastime in their very own tradition has pushed them again to theaters. Nearly all functioning theaters within the nation have returned to promoting tickets to complete properties, in line with Olha Baibak with the Nationwide Union of Theater Employees of Ukraine. “There’s a rising pastime within the theater right through the rustic,” Baibak wrote in an e-mail to NPR. “New audiences have come, folks opt for verbal exchange, for treatment, to reside some more or less revel in.” She says in addition they come to escape from fact. Appearing additionally gives actors an break out. Actor Mykhailo Kukuyuk, who performs the nature Pistryak, the principle personality’s crafty assistant, says it’s occasionally tough to dam out the demanding situations and horrors of struggle going down out of doors the theater. However appearing is an honor that reminds him what he believes Ukrainians are preventing for. “For theater, for handsome, gorgeous ladies. It’s the main points, the sparks that make us alive — it’s onerous to position into one sentence,” he says. Polina Lytvynova contributed to this record from Kyiv.