The audience votes for the Ukrainian product

“Do you have an extra ticket?” This question is frequently asked in our capital. The audience has to buy tickets in advance, because the tickets are sold out quickly, and it is not easy to get to a famous production or premiere. Whereas in spring the halls were empty, and many people complained about the apathy and depression caused by the political events, the killings of the Heavenly Hundred, the annexation of Crimea, actual war in the east, in autumn a theater boom started in Kyiv. At the same time Russian performers, who previously used to make the box-office, have practically refused to come to our country, and the capital audience is not eager to see them. Having cut the Moscow “tail,” providers and organizers of tours got focused on the Ukrainian “product,” and the audience has discovered that there are many interesting theaters, theater masters, and talented youth. The theaters have prepared 83 premieres for this season. At the same time, plays of a variety of genres are shown, and the audience has a wide choice. The audience has come back to theaters. Why? Heads of leading Kyiv theaters tell The Day about this.

Mykhailo ZAKHAREVYCH, director general of Ivan Franko National Theater:

“If we look back at the overall history of the theater, theaters had full houses during the time of troubles, revolutions, and wars. Why? Because of the psychological moment, when people feel great discomfort in their lives and look for an escape. And theater has always been such a place. People watch a play and experience catharsis, and in such a way their state of mind is restored. In spite of the extremely complicated economic situation for the country, and culture in particular, theaters today pay great attention to the quality of repertoire. We are trying to involve more youth in cooperation, carrying out artistic experiments, we respond to the events that       are taking place in our life. For example, the latest chamber stage premiere is Diaries of Maidan. This production has caused quite a response among the audience and critics. There are proposals to show it in the Czech Republic and Germany.

THE PRODUCTION OF FRANKO THEATER DIARIES OF MAIDAN HAS CAUSED RESPONSE AMONG THE AUDIENCE AND CRITICS. THERE ARE PROPOSALS TO SHOW IT IN THE CZECH REPUBLIC AND GERMANY / Photo by Oleksii IVANOV

“Today theaters are taking an active part in shaping of a patriotic-national attitude to the events that are taking place in our country. The staff of the Ivan Franko Theater is working very actively not only in the artistic domain, but they also have a political and civil stand which is a matter of principle. We are holding many events aimed at helping our state, raise money and send them for the support of ATO servicemen, our artistes perform in military hospitals, are involved in volunteering. Besides, we hold charity performances, inviting migrants from Crimea and the east, and we have also given a performance for children with oncological disease who undergo treatment in Okhmatdyt (because the consequences of the Chornobyl catastrophe will for many years remain a huge problem for Ukraine and its people). The employees of the Ivan Franko Theater are united in their desire to have a single, united and prosperous country, where people would live according to European standards.

“Theater today is an active political fighter, it has always been and will remain a cultural milieu which shapes not only aesthetic tastes of people, but also their civil and patriotic stand.”

Andrii BILOUS, artistic director of Young Theater:

“Indeed, at the moment we can see quite a boom among the audience. In my opinion, this is happening because people have missed theater. Although in spring because of political events (the annexation of Crimea and escalation of the situation in Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts) the attendance dropped, and it looked like average Ukrainians had no time for theater. Someone was depressed, others volunteered for the National Guard or were involved in volunteering to support our army, which is not only defending their Fatherland, but also the European choice of people who rose in Maidan. People at the moment are tired of hearing and seeing negative news. They want to hide from this in a different world, which is why audience went to the theater. Above all, people want to see something warm, heartfelt, lyrical, and funny – about love and high relations. For the most part the audience tries to avoid plays dedicated to political or painful social themes. I think this is a kind of a defense mechanism.

“You shouldn’t forget that Russian actors have stopped touring our country, although previously celebrities often playing in potboiler enterprises, and the audience paid huge money for this. Now people with medium income who used to go to performances of foreign actors, are discovering the Ukrainian theater, and they have seen that there are good actors and interesting productions in Kyiv. By the way, they considered a ticket for 120 hryvnias peanuts, because they thought they had to pay several thousands hryvnias to keep in line with their status. Now these people have switched to the Ukrainian product, and they watch our plays with interest. Recently we have carried out an experiment, and set the prices for the New Year’s production Liar Wanted (December 31) at 500 hryvnias, and we can see from the box-office that half of the tickets have already been sold. So, the audience goes to the theater to see the Ukrainian product.”

Petro CHUPRYNA, director general of the National Opera of Ukraine:

“People are gradually coming to their senses after the most dramatic events of Maidan, the annexation of Crimea, military events in the east, feeling thirst for art, satisfying their aesthetic demands, which, fortunately, are not so easily destroyed, because they belong to the determining civilization factors of human life. In my opinion, people today run away from television with its mostly negative information and look for positive things in the sphere of high art, which again proves that it will be in demand at any time. Classical theater is not just an entertainment, this is an effort of soul, and craving for high spirituality has always accompanied the humankind in the most dramatic periods of its life.

HEARTY MERRYMAKING, OR A CAP WITH CARPS (THEATER ON THE LEFT BANK OF THE DNIPRO) IN SCENIC INTERPRETATION OF DIRECTOR DMYTRO BOHOMAZOV OF STORIES BY YURII KOVAL FROM THE COLLECTION CHISTY DOR ARE FUNNY, KIND, WISE, AND VERY LIGHT STORIES ABOUT AN OLD VILLAGE LOST IN THE WOODS AND THE LIFE OF ITS RESIDENTS / Photo by Yevhen CHEKALIN

“At the moment the National Opera of Ukraine, which is going through a difficult period together with the country, is thoroughly correcting the repertoire, offering works of high artistic quality, which are in demand. We cannot allow having empty halls, fearing to become a burden for the state, which has embarked on a thorny path of radical changes.

“Actors and musicians are improving their creative and rehearsal processes to show on the stage a high quality of performance in opera and ballet productions. When a team works with devotion, it creates a special aura, which charges all the participants on both sides. Ovations are the state of special emotional elevation, which calls upon the audience to come again and again to the temple of art.”

Vitalii MALAKHOV, artistic director of Theater in Podil:

“In my opinion, the audience has come back to theater, because Kyiv theaters have stopped to include actual one-day plays in their repertoires. The audience always feels falsehood acutely and is not eager to watch what goes down in a stream from the rostrum of the Verkhovna Rada, interviews with politicians on radio and television, rather it looks for artistic things. I think people have gotten tired of typical schemes, which serve the groundwork for television series based on bad literature. Speaking about our attendance, classical works are the most popular: Hohol, Karpenko-Kary, Kulish, Chekhov, Bulgakov, Tolstoy, Ostrovsky, Goldoni, et al. Today people are missing the literature of high examples, because they are fed up with television and its gangster plots. As for the popular genres, comedy is the favorite one, although people go to serious plays as well. They are tired of negative things and want some relaxation. For theater is a civil phenomenon. When you feel that people are close to you, not only can you communicate with actors; there is a kind of internal conversation between the audience and the stage. Maidan and all the events that have happened and continue to take place in our country have made Ukrainians feel that they have someone to rely on. Today people want to communicate, they are no more afraid of the masses, hence the fragmentation. Besides, the audience thinks it is better to go to good plays.”

Eduard MYTNYTSKY, artistic director of Kyiv Drama and Comedy Theater on the Left Bank of the Dnipro:

“I will answer in theses. People feel need for emotional freedom and find it when they come to performances. Theater can be called a moral and aesthetic shelter. Namely here the audience can rest for some time from the pressure of television and information; understand the devastating effect of the sabotage in TV series. Today people are confused, disunited by our oligarch-corruption epidemic, and theater for them is short-time teamwork.”