The production will run from the 27th February until the 28th March.
Rehearsal images have now been released for ‘Ukraine Unbroken’, conceived and directed by Nicolas Kent, featuring plays by David Edgar, David Greig, Cat Goscovitch and Natalka Vorozhbit.
Ukraine Unbroken charts twelve turbulent years of modern Ukrainian history, from the Maidan protests of 2014 to Russia’s full-scale invasion in 2022 and beyond. Across five gripping plays by some of today’s most acclaimed British and Ukrainian writers, the show explores the resilience of a nation determined to remain free.
The ensemble includes: Daniel Betts (To Kill A Mockingbird), Ian Bonar (Retrograde), Sally Giles (Value Engineering: Scenes from the Grenfell Inquiry), David Michaels (The 39 Steps), Clara Read (Matilda The Musical), and Jade Williams (The Father) all of whom play a variety of roles in each of the five plays.
The show features live Ukrainian music from Mariia Petrovska on the bandura, with the five plays being as follows:
ACT 1: DEMONSTRATIONS & INVASIONS
ALWAYS – JONATHAN MYERSON
- In Always by Jonathan Myerson (BBC’s Nuremberg: The Trial of the Nazi War Criminals) a married couple is held hostage inside Hotel Ukraina in 2014 as their son protests in Maidan Square below.
FIVE DAY WAR – David Edgar
- David Edgar (The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby; Destiny) takes a darkly comic and sinister look at the ambition and delusion of Russia’s 2022 “Special Military Operation” – an invasion that was not an invasion and a war that was not a war.
ACT 2: WAR
THREE MATES – NATALKA VOROZHBIT
- Natalka Vorozhbit (Bad Roads, trans. Sasha Dugdale) explores the shame of survival in Three Mates, translated by Sasha Dugdale – a darkly humorous confession from a Ukrainian man in hiding from conscription, reflecting on the different paths through the war he and his friends have taken.
WRETCHED THINGS – David Greig
- David Greig‘s (Dunsinane; The Events) Wretched Things tells a story of Ukrainian front-line troops who have captured a wounded North Korean soldier and must decide whether to risk their own lives to save his.
TAKEN – CAT GOSCOVITCH
- Cat Goscovitch (A Russian Doll) confronts the harrowing reality of the 20,000 Ukrainian children stolen by Russia in Taken, which follows one mother’s search for her daughter through a world of propaganda and re-education, where both childhood and country are erased.
Meanwhile, the creative team includes: Matthew Eagland (lighting designer), Michael Taylor (set and costume designer), Sasha Dugdale (translator) and Joe Dines (sound and video designer).
To book tickets visit: https://www.arcolatheatre.com/event/ukraine-unbroken/