First of a series of Ukrainian plays to be read next Monday 2 May, 7.30pm GMT by Stepping Out Theatre

Natalya Vorozhbit’s searingly powerful play Bad Roads about the war in the Donbas will be read live on Zoom on Monday 2 May, 7.30pm GMT. Written five years ago, the play is particularly poignant in the current climate and will be a dramatic experience, followed by a discussion with some Ukrainian playwrights in the audience. Afterwards, they will join the panel to say a few words and to have an online discussion with our audience. Some of these writers are ones whose work we will be performing in future.

 

Stepping Out Theatre Company, the UK’s leading mental health theatre company, will be reading this play in the first of a series of events, online, staged and full productions of works by Ukrainian playwrights. Stepping Out Theatre are working closely with the 24 writers of the Playwrights Theatre of Kyiv, some of whom are now serving in the Territorial Defence forces of Ukraine; supporting art and culture in Ukraine is a vital strand in supporting their independence as a country. All monies raised through these events goes directly to support theatre artists in Ukraine and the charities they nominate supporting the war effort.

Natalia Vorozhbyt is a Ukrainian playwright, a leader in the resurgence of Ukrainian national drama in the 21st century. Her first major play, Galka Motalko, had success shortly after she graduated from Moscow’s Gorky Literature Institute in 2000. The Grain Store, a historical work about the Holodomor, the state-induced famine in Ukraine in the 1930s, was produced by the Royal Shakespeare Company in London in 2009.

Vorozhbyt took part in the Euromaidan protests in Kyiv in 2013/14, and the theme of the ensuing war with Russia has coloured her work ever since. In 2015 she was a co-founder, with Georg Genoux, of the Theatre of Displaced People which offered an opportunity for refugees from the Donbass region to tell their stories in a formal, theatrical context. She wrote the screenplay for Cyborgs, a 2017 film about the bloody defence of an airport in Donetsk against Russian separatists. Bad Roads (2017) was staged at the Royal Court Theatre in London, and, as a film directed by the author, was Ukraine’s official Oscar selection in 2022. Vorozhbyt writes in Ukrainian and Russian.

We are looking for donations for Ukrainian theatre artists and charities supporting the war effort. Please remember to tick the box for Gift Aid if you are eligible - that goes to Ukraine also. Don't forget to enter your email address for the event ticket link to be emailed back to you.

Formed in 1997, based in Bristol, and with ninety-four productions to its credit, Stepping Out Theatre is the country's leading mental health theatre group. It has produced a wide range of work on mental health themes and is open to people who have used mental health services and their allies.

 

https://steppingouttheatre.co.uk/SteppingOutDonate.php

https://issuu.com/pennedbyjen/docs/bad_roads_programme