ДРАМА І ТЕАТР В ОПТИЦІ ВОЇНІВ-ЗАХИСНИКІВ: УКРАЇНСЬКА РЕПРЕЗЕНТАЦІЯ
DRAMA AND THEATER FROM THE PERSPECTIVE OF WARRIOR DEFENDERS: UKRAINIAN PRESENTATION

Summary/Abstract: The article examines a new phenomenon in Ukrainian culture—theatrical projects and dramatic writing by veterans of the Russian-Ukrainian war, which Ukrainians now refer to as the “war for Ukraine's independence.” A consistent chronological analysis of extensive factual data shows that at the management level, the development of the veterans’ dramaturgical and theatrical community through specific projects is mainly carried out by former combatants or military volunteers (Maksym Kurochkin, Ihor Kasian, Serhii Dmytriiev, Yevhen Stepanenko, Oleg Shulga, Yuriy Matsarsky, Akhtem Seitablaiev, Yuriy Vetkin), or systemic theater managers who understand the importance and prospects of developing this humanitarian segment (Iryna Harets, Alex Borovensky). Thanks to this, we can talk about both one-off veteran theater projects (Project W: Veterans, Volunteers, and William in Ivano-Frankivsk, Voices and There Is No Point in Being Afraid in Kyiv, Unborn for War in Dnipro, “Traveler's Playlist” in Lviv), as well as systemic initiatives that will change the Ukrainian theater landscape (“Children and the Military” on the demarcation line in the towns of Donbas, Showcase of Contemporary Ukrainian Drama in Kyiv and Kharkiv, Veterans Theater, Theater of Military Actions, the Veteran Fest forum of veteran initiatives, the DRAMAN Theatres Trust cultural center in Kyiv, the Sercevir Veterans’ Theater in Chernihiv, the Veterans’ Art Center in Zaporizhzhia, the veterans’ theater based at the Theater of Contemporary Dialogue in Poltava, and the Theater of the Unbreakable in Lviv). Until 2024, plays about veterans were a rare phenomenon, but since 2024 they have become a separate discourse in contemporary Ukrainian drama (Andriy Ivanyuk, Maksym Kurochkin, Valery Puzik, Yurko Vovkogon, Oleksandr Zhuhan, Antonina Romanova, Yevhen Avdeenko, Alina Sarnatska, Yuriy Vetkin, Volodymyr Tuka, Hennadiy Udovenko, Maksym Devizorov, Yuriy Matsarskyi, Yuliya Vobornikova-Golovko, Volodymyr Zavgorodniy, Andriy Grygoriev, Mykhailo Fateev, Serhiy Ivanov, Velimir Gorislavets, Oleksandr Bakinovskyi, Yuriy Matsarskyi, Maria “Gerda” Chek, Pavlo “Pashte” Belyanskyi, Mykola Gradnov-Savitskyi). Dramatic writing by the wives of Ukrainian military personnel is also actively developing (Kateryna Vyshneva, Kateryna Gradnova-Savitskaya, Natalia Zaritska, Irina Sedova, Arina Rozvadovska, Olga Murashko). New genre formats of veteran literature adapted for the theater are expanding, and veteran theater projects are becoming public platforms for personal expressions about the war, unaffected by outside aesthetic perspectives.

• Details
• Contents