Theater is slowly resurrected in the war-hit city of Kharkiv, a hotbed of artistic innovation before the invasion, with audiences eager for normality amid Russian attacks and as the “Nafta” company adapts to Focus on the here and now to deal with uncertainty.
“A spectator told me after the show that it had reminded her of emotions and feelings that she had forgotten she was capable of experiencing,” one of the actors, Mykola Naboka, told EFE. “This is why we do theater,” he added.
Like other residents, Naboka left Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second largest city, shortly after the start of the Russian invasion, when bombs destroyed thousands of residential buildings. After the Ukrainian army managed to push the invading forces eastwards more than a year ago, many returned and Naboka has now traveled to Kharkiv to take action.
However, hundreds of windows with broken glass in the same center remind us of the deadly threat that continues to hang over the city, located just 30 kilometers from Russia and where a missile killed two people last week.
“When we worked in safer Lviv, all our plays talked about the war. Here, on the contrary, we tried to distract the audience from it,” explains Artem Vusyk, author and director of the first premiere at the “Nafta” theater since the invasion began.
It is a crime comedy, a lighter adaptation of a work from the theater’s pre-war repertoire, which used to address more serious topics and raise “uncomfortable” questions.
Several dozen spectators observe the work in a small room whose windows still show the marks of the crossed strips of adhesive tape placed to reduce the number of fragments in which the glass could break and, therefore, the injuries they could cause. When Vusyk asks the audience who is visiting the theater for the first time, almost everyone raises their hand.
“People love theater here. Now that all fifty theaters in the city are closed, everyone comes here because there is no alternative,” he explains.
For viewers accustomed to a more traditional concept of the seventh art, a visit to “Nafta” becomes a true discovery, since its shows, including this premiere, adhere to the current of physical theater, based on movement as a method. narrative, supported by an intricate combination of light and sound, gestures and mimicry.
Most of the 60 members that made up the pre-war cast of “Nafta” have left to rebuild their lives in less dangerous cities or countries, so a new repertoire is being created.
But for Vusyk, who returned to his hometown this summer, Kharkiv is a “place of creative force” that was and remains at the forefront of Ukrainian culture. He thinks it is important to talk more about the innovative Ukrainian theater in early Soviet Kharkiv, which was later crushed by the Moscow regime in the 1930s, along with other independent manifestations of national culture. “Many people grew up in the already Russified city so they don’t even know about it,” he notes.
The first performances give Vusyk hope that even here, near the front, art can and should exist. “Both we artists and the public need it very much. It gives us more energy to continue fighting,” he emphasizes.
In anticipation of possible power outages due to Russian attacks on energy infrastructure, “Nafta” is going to buy a generator, but has no way to prepare for everything that may happen.
“We take small steps and enjoy more of the here and now, both in our theater and in Kharkiv as a whole. We now value the process of creating art together over long-term plans or achievements,” says Vusyk. “Every rehearsal, every event is very important to us. Because very easily there may not be another tomorrow,” she emphasizes.