photo by Anastasia Halyuk
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Despite the Russian-Ukrainian war caused by Russian aggression, Lviv is restoring its cultural life. On April 1, the city partially opened theatres, opera, philharmonic, organ hall, museums. In particular, the UCU School Theater «On Simon’s Pillars» under the direction of Yevhen Khudzyk staged the first play in Lviv since the beginning of the war – «Velykyi Liokh» (Big Cellar) by the poem of Taras Shevchenko. Lviv Now asked Yevhen Khudzyk about the beginning of the theatre and the first performances during the war, the artistic front and the importance of the Ukrainian language.
About the beginning of work and repertoire during the war
With the beginning of the Russian-Ukrainian war caused by Russian aggression on February 24, all cultural events were canceled. The first few weeks we all had to find ourselves in a new reality. Military reality or volunteer reality or in saving the lives of loved ones or even distant. Over time, in the vortex of various volunteer initiatives, the evacuation of many artists from the East, we became more and more aware of the importance of restoring the artistic front, which we had to keep, in fact, all the years of independence. We did «singing landings» in volunteer centers, psycho-physical trainings. By World Theater Day we managed to make the first theatrical production in Lviv during the war. Although the rehearsals took place during the bombing of Lviv, we were protected and secured in the lower church of Sophia the Wisdom of God, which also serves as a shelter from missiles. So here, on March 27, we played a mystery based on Taras Shevchenko’s texts «Big Cellar» and «Moscow Well».
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The main event of the play is the digging of the «Big Cellar», either in Subotiv in the church of Bohdan Khmelnytskyi, or in one’s soul, as in the work «Moscow Well». The Big Cellar is a gateway to heaven, an image of the sacredness of Ukrainian identity, and a way of salvation. There are many reasons why we chose to stage this play from the beginning of the war. The first editions of the play appeared during the Revolution of Dignity. Then the texts became a revelation to me, so prophetic, sober. Including in relation to our infantilism, and the Moscow locust. Shevchenko speaks clearly and accurately about the forces of evil that surround us and that we have. For us his insight is important. Because each segment of the text in its own way diagnoses the Ukrainian identity and in general offers guidelines on how to endure the times of hardships in a person’s dignity.
For Shevchenko, the «Big Cellar», his treasure, his well, his gate to heaven – this is his «Kobzar». He dug a portal to heaven by the Word and gave us the water of the living Word. When we perform a play, the text actualizes the internal value tuning forks. Everyone is invited to listen to where he digs in his life, where his «Big Cellar», whether he has a shovel in his hand. The awakening of this hearing is probably the purpose of such performances.
On March 30, we played «Snow in Florence» by the great Kyiv resident Lina Kostenko, who turned 92 years old. This work speaks, I hope not only to me, about the fragility and strength of fidelity. The fragility we are called to protect and the strength of fidelity that can inspire us. About how important it is to feel it in yourself, to keep it, to feel it as a vocation. How eloquent are these topics and these issues today.
About the art front
For me, the theatre is not so much a cultural phenomenon as an anthropological one. It is about a person, for a person and in order to remain a person. Therefore, the theatre is especially important at this time. In the church, the priests are now testifying that we are living in the last days, because it is now that good as good and evil as evil are manifested in a particularly expressive way. All this becomes evident. It seems to me that we are saving this world largely not only by protecting it from the horde, but also by doing so without losing humanity, dignity and love. This is what the world, and the human in it, should exist for.
I do not tire of referring to the words of Winston Churchill during World War II, who was speaking in the British Parliament. To the question: «Why finance culture when there is a war?» – He replied: «And why, in fact, we are fighting then? Why should we win when there is no culture? «
I have been on this artistic front from the very beginning, when I first came on stage. In the struggle for the Ukrainian word, for meanings, for identity, for the disclosure of texts not for some celebration of the holiday, but every day, because they are ingenious. I am against the festive bronzing of texts. Another thing is that we do not reach the depth of understanding of the texts, this genius, and we need to work with ourselves a little. There must be healthy good work in this: acting, art, so that people can hear texts clearly, and not just on a pathetic note.
For me, the de jure confrontation with Russia, which took place on February 24, took place in 2013. When the pro-Russian government was dispersing students on Independence Square in Kyiv, I was also there. There I realized that the morning I faced a turning point in history – there was a sharp feeling that it will never be the same as before. The compass has changed in terms of sense of time and space. Despite the war, we saw how they tried to talk and erase for it in different ways. However, the front cannot be erased, and what we saw on February 24 and see in Mariupol, Kharkiv, and Izyum – now the whole of Ukraine has realized this ontological confrontation.
About the Ukrainian language
Despite the fact that many Russian-speaking Ukrainians have come to the defense of the Universe of Ukraine. Unfortunately, not many people now aware of the importance of the Ukrainian language in this struggle. Speaking, reading, writing and thinking in Ukrainian is now ultra-important, because our language is a different world, a different galaxy that is foreign to Russians. It is the language of freedom, the language of dignity, the language of our being. The Russians have been so zealous in trying to Russify us, because the Ukrainian language is the «Great Cellar» of Ukraine, the code that programs our peaceful reality around us.
It seems to me that most Russian-speaking Ukrainians are afraid to switch to Ukrainian because they are afraid of being dumb. They are so used to speaking Russian that they are afraid of losing their voice when switching to another language. But by continuing to speak Russian, they are putting our state at risk of surviving and preserving our identity.
I understand how painful this process is. I am from Kazakhstan myself and before I switched to Ukrainian, the years of my acquisition of the language passed. It was not easy. I worked to ensure that what was said met the accuracy of what was perceived or felt. However, all of us who love Ukraine should realize the importance of language for victory and take this courageous step – to switch to Ukrainian, even when sometimes this step to life seems deadly.
Roman Tyshchenko-Lamanskyi, translated by Kateryna Bortniak
Photo: Anastasia Halyuk and Olha Shakhnyk
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