Review: UKRAINE UNBROKEN at Arcola Theatre

Interestingly, while the plays by Jonathan Myerson, David Edgar, Natalka Vorozhbit (translated by Sasha Dugdale), David Greig and Cat Goscovitch each show an aspect to the ongoing hostilities and injustices, the amalgamation avoids tub-thumbing, settling instead on informing through the presentation of everyday human experience — albeit in very different scenarios and from different perspectives often neatly delineated through the placement of a flag on costumes, or by the assuming of different regional British accents in place of hard guttural Slavic tones.

Each play serves as an individual scene, a vignette played out at a particular location, at a particular time. The first (“Always”) is a hotel room where a party apparatchik Petro (David Michaels) and his wife Sofiya (Sally Giles) have a view directly overlooking the huge pro-Western protests which took place in Kyiv’s Independence Square in 2013. Their son is among those encamped below demanding membership of the EU. Armed men from the Donbas in the east of the country, break in with the intention of shooting from the hotel window aiming to disrupt the protests and encourage the state to adopt a more pro-Russian stance. Suddenly, the potential impact of generalised decision-making takes on a new and infinitely greater personal significance.

The second (“Five Day War”) involves a small group of elected officials each given a NATO phonetic code for the duration of their short stay at a remote hotel. As shadowy pro-Russian figures monitor and prepare for the 5-day overthrow of Zelensky’s illegitimate government during the early days of the February 2022 invasion, resistance proves unexpectedly strong and Echo, Foxtrot, Indiaand Victor gradually realise that their hopes of holding top jobs in the new Ukrainian administration were naïvely premature and grossly optimistic.

Each segment is introduced by Mariia Petrovska who plays the 65 stringed Bandura, Ukraine’s national plucked instrument while recounting both personal and national details pertinent to the next play. After the interval we return for a two-hander (“Three Mates” directed by Victoria Gartner) which proves more of a monologue as Andriy (the excellent Ian Bonar) recounts his perpetual sleeplessness as the sound of sirens fill his days and nights. He exchanges texts with someone who bribed his way out of the country in the early days of the conflict and berates himself as a man of enlistable age who is in hiding. A coward perhaps, but not to the degree of the man now texting from Austria where he is fretting for his homeland while ski-ing with his family. Meanwhile his wife occupying the other side of the bed, is merely a figment, having long since fled.

Fourth in the sequence (“Wretched Things”) is set at an abandoned primary where 3 soldiers falling back from the front line after carrying out an attack, find themselves under heavy Russian fire. They also discover a North Korean conscript who is badly injured and barely breathing. There follows a theoretical exchange about the value of applying protocols of the Geneva Convention in relation to injured combatants whilst facing extreme danger in a war zone. Sasha (Daniel Betts) finds himself playing the middle man in a stand-off between ideals and pressing realities.

Finally, (in “Taken”), a mother, Anna (Jade Williams) experiences the horror of having her daughter Lilya (Clara Read) forcibly relocated across the eastern border by Russian soldiers where for a year she is re-educated through soviet propaganda and encouraged to believe her parents are dead or have abandoned her. When Anna makes the perilous journey to reclaim her, the pair are forced to perpetuate lies for the media. But despite being free to leave, it is clear a lot has happened in a year and that Lilya is both angry, confused and frightened at having been used as a pawn in the ongoing conflict. It is clear that the long-term damage cause by the enforced separation will take years to fully reveal itself.

At the performance, I found myself seated next to actress Clare Holman with whom I briefly chatted about her previous work with the Director Nicolas Kent and how she very nearly found herself more directly involved in this production. While it would be difficult to describe this as a jolly rampage through the Ukraine situation and conflict, much of the historical context is delivered with ease and as a consequence the relatable nature of each fictitious scene becomes entirely absorbing. The cast members all appear in multiple scenes as diverse characters (although for simplicity I have merely included each in a notably prominent role in the play outlines above).

UKRAINE UNBROKEN touches on a multiplicity of themes around humanity, idealistic principles, the futility of war, manipulation, love and fear. It is sometimes a tough watch but has considerable merit. The production continues at Arcola until 28^th March and has a running time of 2 hours 40 minutes including interval.