Ukrainian Theatre of National Identity - Chapter Breakdown

Chapter Breakdown & Goals

In the first chapter, I set up the key facets of nationalism and nation-building in Ukraine, and bring to light the key figures in the Ukrainian literary pantheon which guided the development of Ukrainian culture for the century following their deaths. To define nationalism and its associated terms in specific relation to the drama, I bring in scholars such as Nadine Holdsworth and Kiki Gounaridou, who introduce terms such as “nation under duress,” “state of the nation play,” “cosmopolitanism,” and “national iconography.” These terms are to be kept in mind for future sections while exploring and discussing specific works in the Ukrainian canon. Afterwards, I dive into the history of early Ukraine under control of the Russian Empire, explore the lives of Taras Shevchenko, Ivan Franko, and Lesia Ukrainka, and discuss their contributions to the Ukrainian literary canon.

In the second chapter, I build the concept of Ukrainian Modernism, setting it apart from the modernisms of other European powers as a project of cultural reclamation rather than degradation. I specifically explore the development of Ukrainian Modernist practice through the experimentation of Les Kurbas and the evolution of his theatrical work, spanning from his upbringing in Vienna to his touring theatre troupe Kyidramte to the founding of the Berezil Artistic Association. This chapter also charts the changing political environment in Ukraine at the time, spanning between World War I, the Russian Revolution, the Ukrainian Civil War, the Period of Ukrainization, and the Stalinist Reign of Terror. The third chapter provides two case studies in the specifics of Ukrainian written drama from the period, delving into the plots and iconography present in the English published work of Kurbas’s longtime collaborator Mykola Kulish.

The fourth and final chapter explores Ukrainian drama of the present day through specific works of three Ukrainian theaters: Teatr Lesi in Lviv, the Lesia Ukrainka National Academic Theater in Kyiv, and the ProEnglish Theatre in Kyiv. Through Teatr Lesi, I explore the development of the theatrical community in Ukraine through use of ethnographic components, cultural figures, and experimental theatre practices developed in response to Modernist practices. Through the Lesia Ukrainka National Academic Theater, I discuss the question of repertoire in Ukrainian theatrical practice, and the act of bringing Ukraine closer to the West through the cultivation of a common cultural language. Finally, through the ProEnglish Theatre, I explore the building blocks of an international theatrical culture, from the primary use of the English language to the cultivation of international partnerships and theatre festivals, while preserving the culture of experimentation unique to Ukrainian theatrical practice from the time of Kurbas.

Secondary sources on Ukrainian theatre, specifically of the 1920s and early 1930s, are few and far between. There are very few academic books written on Les Kurbas and Ukrainian theatre of the 1920s and early 1930s, written by a handful of scholars such as Iryna Makaryk, Virlana Tkacz, Larissa Onyshkevych, and Nelli Kornienko. Makaryk and Tkacz’s Modernism in Kyiv: A Jubilant Experimentation and Makaryk’s Shakespeare in the Undiscovered Bourn are invaluable resources in painting a picture of Modernist Kyiv. Yosyp Hirniak’s firsthand account of the life of the Berezil Artistic Association, appearing in the collection Soviet Theaters 1917-1941, provides an in-depth look specifically at the partnership between Kurbas and Kulish. There is no shortage of English-language biographical information about Taras Shevchenko, Lesia Ukrainka, or Ivan Franko. Serhii Plohky’s The Gates of Europe is an invaluable source of information on the historic context of Ukraine during the lives of these figures; Andrew Wilson’s The Ukrainians: Unexpected Nation also provides this context, providing more attention specifically to cultural institutions. Other biographical and historical context is found on the Internet Encyclopedia of Ukraine, a scholarly hypertext which provides key information on Ukrainian figures and locations.

In regards to Chapter 4, my primary research materials are interviews and observations acquired during my time in Ukraine in July 2023, and during the beginning of my partnership with ProEnglish Theatre in October/November 2023. Official online materials from the theaters I interacted with are referenced; most of them were already in English, with Google Translate’s browser plugin translating any untranslated materials. I mostly reference English-language news articles when I reference news articles at all. My interviews with Anastasia Pavlenko, Lesia Sukhonos, Veronika Streltsova, and Alex Borovenskiy were conducted in English; my interview with Kyrylo Parastaev and Iryna Buchko was conducted in Ukrainian, with my city guide Viktoriia Klymenko providing English translations during the interview. Transcripts were created by Yarema Yakobchuk, a former English student of mine, who transcribed both the English and Ukrainian portions of the interviews. All shows I saw while I was in Ukraine were performed in Ukrainian. My Lviv city guide Khrystyna Vavryniv provided context for the plays Galdamash and The Heroes of Chaos after seeing them; my Kyiv city guide Viktoriia did the same for The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime.

On the topic of translation and transliteration, when a Ukrainian word is transliterated into the Roman alphabet from Cyrillic, I copy the transliteration used in the source. When transliterating names, specifically that of Lesia Ukrainka (in Cyrillic: Леся Українка), I tend towards translating the vowel “я” as “ia” instead of “ya,” as the latter is more common in transliterating Russian into English, and the former is more common in transliterating Ukrainian into phonetic English. Other sources, including the Lesia Ukrainka National Academic Theater in Kyiv, spell it as “Lesya” in their official work. Other than that, rather than phonetically transliterating Ukrainian into English sounds, I offer a translation—either done by the Google Translate browser plugin or by a credited translator—and provide the untranslated version in the footnotes. In the case of the poetry of Shevchenko and Franko, the professionally and artistically translated extract of the text appears in the body of the thesis, and both the untranslated extract and a literal translation appear in the footnotes.

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