Ukrainian culture will take centre stage at the St James Theatre this September as Kiev’s Lesya Ukrainka National Academic Theatre of Russian Drama presents a cycle of four plays to be performed in Russian at the Victoria venue.
Running from 9 to 19 September as part of a festival that also includes two free film screenings and a photography exhibition, the plays will comprise Ward Of The Manor, My Mocking Happiness, Life’s Little Nothings and Don Juan.
Ward Of The Manor, a new translation of Ivan Turgenev’s comedy drama Fortune’s Fool, will play from 8 to 10 September, followed by Leonid Malyugin’s drama based on the legendary playwright Anton Chekhov’s letters to his wife, My Mocking Happiness, from 11 to 12 September.
Chekhov will continue to take centre stage from 13 to 15 September with Life’s Little Nothings, which features five short works by the playwright: A Daughter Of Albion, A Tripping Tongue, Difficult People, A Happy Man and The Wallet.
The season will conclude from 17 to 19 September with the late Ukrainian poet and theatre company’s namesake Lesya Ukrainka’s unique take on Tirso de Molina’s classic story of one of literature’s most famous lotharios, Don Juan. This semi-autobiographical interpretation looks at the story from the point of view of a young woman selflessly devoted to the libertine.
Giving audiences a rare chance to acquaint themselves with some of Ukraine’s cultural masterpieces, the productions, which will all be directed by the Kiev-based company’s Artistic Director Mikhail Reznikovich, will be live dubbed in English by a translator in the auditorium.