Olomouc to host first Worldwide Ukrainian Play Readings performance in Czechia
This Wednesday will see the Palacký University in Olomouc take part in Worldwide Ukrainian Play Readings, an international project initiated by the famous US theatre critic John Freedman that sees the readings of works written by Ukrainian playwrights following Russia’s invasion of the country. It is the first time that the project, which has already raised over a quarter of a million dollars, is taking place in Czechia.
Close to 300 institutions across the world have pledged to take part in the Worldwide Ukrainian Play Readings since the project was set up by the American playwright John Freedman and his Ukrainian counterpart Maksym Kurochkin shortly after Russia’s aggression against Ukraine.
The latter has been fighting in Ukrainian Territorial Defence forces since the start of the war and is the founder of the Theatre of Playwrights, a platform of Ukrainian theatre whose authors have written 128 plays on the subject of their traumatic experiences in the war.
The overall aim of the project is to raise money through institutions around the world that have artists read the texts and visitors donate to Ukrainian organisations. Many have already done so, but Wednesday’s evening performance at the theatre hall of the Artistic Centre of the University of Palacký in Olomouc is the first time that such an event is taking place in Czechia.
The woman in charge of the performance is translator and lecturer in Russian Studies at the Department of Slavonic Studies at the university Dr Martina Pálušová.
“More than USD 250,000 have been collected through these readings. People can pay a voluntary fee to come and watch them and this money is then sent to various fundraisers. Some of these funds are sent to Ukrainian artists or organisations that are in need of the money.”
She told Czech Radio that five short theatre plays will be read out during the evening. They were translated by the department’s students, including Ukrainian, Belarussian and Russian nationals.
“Four of these plays were written at the beginning of the war and all of them reflect the initial traumatic experience of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.”
Among those plays being read out is Kurochkin’s “A Dictionary of Emotions in War Time”, which has passages dedicated to feelings such as panic, fear, hunger, betrayal, love and guilt. Others include plays by Elena Astasyeva, the author of several works that have received critical acclaim in Ukraine, and Vitaly Chensky, whose play Robinson focuses around a man who turns to a book of Dostoevsky tales to remove himself from the realities of war.
Taking part in the Worldwide Ukrainian Play Readings is not only way through which the department is taking part in helping the war-stricken country, says Dr Pálušová.
“All members of our department took part in some sort of help, for example by supporting Ukrainian refugees. Academics and students would help in evacuation trains, act as interpreters at foreign police stations or in refugee centres.”
The Worldwide Ukrainian Play Readings projects follows up on Worldwide Play Readings: Belarus, which was set up in 2020 during the largescale demonstrations following the presidential elections in that country.
