The season will end on July 15 with the premiere performance.
July 15 Ivan National Theater Franka concludes its 102nd theater season with the premiere performance “The Adventure of Nikodym Dyzma” based on the work of the Polish writer Tadeusz Dolenga-Mostowych (director Dmytro Chirypyuk, actor Nazar Zadniprovskyi in the lead role). They will play the extreme performance of the season on the stage of the neighbors: due to the peculiarities of observing the safety rules of the audience and actors in the conditions of martial law – this is the big stage of the Kyiv National Theater named after Lesya Ukrainka.
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Meanwhile, the dates of the opening of the new theater season of the “first Ukrainian stage”, as, according to historical tradition, is called Kyiv Ivan Franko Theater.
So, on August 14, 2022, the residents of Frankivka will open their 103rd theater season at home at the Sergei Danchenko Chamber Stage: it will be the already legendary production of director Dmytro Bogomazov's “Morituri te salutant” based on Vasyl Stefanyk's novels. And on August 23, as part of the opening of their new season, on the big stage of the Lesya Ukrainka Kyiv Theater, the people of Frankivka will present the play “Stolen Happiness” based on the play by Ivan Franko, staged by the theater's chief director, Dmytro Bogomazov.
According to theater critic Oleg Vergelis, the 102nd theater season was probably one of the most difficult for the Franko Theater in its century-long history. The full-scale invasion of the Russian aggressors into Ukraine dramatically changed the life of Ukrainian theaters and the entire country. Despite all the difficulties associated with the need to play on the neighbors' stage, even in the difficult conditions of wartime, the Frank Theater managed to produce two performances on two stages. On the big stage – “The Career of Nikodym Dyzma”: the first reading of the work of the Polish classic Tadeusz Dolenga-Mostovych by the Ukrainian director Dmytro Chirypyuk. A new performance by director Ivan Uryvskyi and artist Petr Bogomazov “Caligula” based on the philosophical and political play by Albert Camus was released on the Chamber Stage. Already at the beginning of July, this new production by the Franks became the leader in terms of the degree of discussions-feedback in the Ukrainian theater segment of the Facebook social network. The performance was well appreciated by both professional critics and numerous loyal viewers of the Ivan Franko National Theater. Almost all reviewers of “Caligula” agree that the text of Albert Camus in the stage interpretation of the Franks (a story about the absolute power of a dictator as an absolute political EVIL) aptly and topically got into our present time, when the relapses of the evil madness of the neighboring northern dictator are painfully felt and our country, and the entire civilized world.
“During the difficult period of wartime, the Franko Theater also prepared two resonant artistic patriotic projects: “Poetry of the Unbreakable”(Frankivians read modern Ukrainian poetry from the period of the Russo-Ukrainian war) and “Songs of the Unbreakable” (Frankivians perform their author's songs, as well as Cossack and rebel songs about the liberation movement in Ukraine)”, – clarifies the critic Vergelis.
Commenting for ZN.UA the conclusion of the 102nd season, the general director-artistic director of the Ivan Franko National Theater, People's Artist of Ukraine Mykhailo Zakharevich recalls a historical retrospective, when the Franks were still in the middle of the 20th century have already been tested by war – the Second World War:
“Back in June of 1941, a group of people from Frank went on tour to Moscow. The war befell the Franko Kyiv Theater there. Part of the collective then managed to evacuate, but a significant part of the collective of Franks remained in Kyiv. The head of the theater, Hnat Petrovich Yura, then made incredible efforts to unite the team of Frankivians and start work already in the evacuation. At the same time, concert brigades of Frankish people were created to serve the soldiers at the front. It was an extremely difficult period in the history of our theater. After 80 years, history repeats itself in an incredible way, and again in our Ivan Franko theater, concert teams are created to serve the defenders of Ukraine, to support their fighting spirit in the fight against the Russian aggressor.
The difficult conclusion of the 102nd theater season is the impossibility of showing our plays in wartime conditions on our native famous Frankish stage, which leads to economic losses. Box office figures thus decreased by almost 100%. I hope that already in the new theater season we will be able to host the audience in our two cozy theater halls.
Our country is currently in a difficult economic situation, so we do not hope for help now. We believe in our Victory. And we know from history that in times of trouble people's demand for spectacles always increases. This, by the way, is evidenced by the present times. We would only like to open the doors of our theater for Ukrainian audiences. We hope that the audience will be interested in our new performances – “The Adventure of Nikodym Dyzma” by Dmytro Chirypyuk and “Caligula” by Ivan Uryvskyi.
Regarding the plays of Russian literary authorship in the repertoire of the Ivan Franko Theater, the artistic director Mykhailo Zakharevich says the following:
“In the repertoire of the Ivan Franko Theater there are no longer plays by Russian authors or Russian directors. All those productions have been deleted from the repertoire”.
Regarding the prospects of the theater's work in the difficult conditions of wartime, the artistic director notes: “Further plans of our theater will be closely related to the economic prospects of the near future. However, our team already has certain plans for the new season. This is the performance “Arturo Ui's Career” based on the anti-fascist play – a pamphlet by Bertold Brecht. This is the famous European play “Visit of the Old Lady” by Friedrich Dürrenmatt. This is also our Ukrainian classic – “The Witch of Konotop” by Hryhoriy Kvitka-Osnovyanenko. There will be other names of new plays, which the theater will announce separately.”
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