The premiere of “Putin in Hell” took place online.
Odessa Academic Puppet Theater continues to operate in the context of a full-scale invasion of Russia. Yes, the theater has already started working on a new production of Natalia Vorozhbyt's play “Grain Storage” about the Holodomor tragedy. However, work in the theater continued immediately after the aggression began, when anti-war mini-plays “Putin in Hell” and “The Last Call from the Bunker” were presented online. Theater critic Oleg Vergelis talks about new theater projects on his Facebook page.
Read also: Bunker maniac and political swindler: Ivan Franko National Theater is preparing two summer premieres during the military theater season The Odessa Puppet Theater said that 2022 was to be a year of resounding premieres and happy holidays, as this year's round dates are celebrated by many leading actors and directors of the theater, and the theater itself is 90 years old this year. However, on February 24, he turned everything upside down.
“But the state of shock did not last long – Odessa puppeteers immediately marked an active position of protest against the Russian invasion – both socially and creatively. The response to Putin's aggression was anti-war mini-plays of our theater, which premiered online – “Putin in Hell” and “The Last Call from the Bunker” directed by Elistin Mikhailov and Yuri Chaika on the idea of Joseph Merkovich. In the first play, the famous tyrants-villains of the past, Adolf Hitler, Joseph Stalin and Vladimir Lenin, meet the modern Russian president in the other world and give him the most honorable place in the cauldron of hell. The second project is about the complete failure of Putin's “special operation”: a paraphrase on the theme of the song by Leonid Utesov from Odessa “Everything is fine, beautiful marquise!” Was used as a plot framework. These works have collected a total of almost a thousand views on social networks.
Independent works of our actors also became bright anti-war statements on the Internet: theatrical miniatures of the creative family of Oleksandr and Iryna Bohdanovych, patriotic songs by Honored Artist of Ukraine Stanislav Mykhaylenko, which also garnered thousands of views and positive feedback from social media users.
In addition, the theater held offline meetings with the audience, showed several free children's performances and held several master classes on puppetry on safe outdoor areas.
“On June 14, the theater was finally allowed to play on its home stage – of course, with the necessary safety standards for spectators (the theater's basement rehearsal room was converted into a bomb shelter in case of an air alarm).
The rehearsal process has been going on in the theater all this time. Director Elistin Mikhailov is currently working on the play “Granary” based on the play by Natalka Vorozhbyt, dedicated to the tragic theme of the Ukrainian Holodomor of 1933. Almost the entire troupe of the theater is engaged in rehearsals. Director Yuri Chaika began work on the poetic play “The Future Has Already Began, Probably” based on poems by Lina Kostenko. And, of course, the theater continues to prepare for its 90th anniversary, which we hope to celebrate after Ukraine's victory over the Russian aggressors, “the theater said.
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