In Ukraine, one of the major challenges to be met in the coming years is and will be the reintegration of soldiers into civilian life. Even before the end of the war, thousands of them had already left the battlefield after injuries or had returned from captivity. In Kyiv, among the many initiatives supported by the government, the return to civilian life of these soldiers also involves theatre, with a new troupe of veterans preparing performances that are as cathartic for the artists as for their audience.
The Ukrainian army’s communications department makes a big deal of it, and rightly so. The veterans’ theater, which was created this summer, highlights the important reintegration work carried out by theUkraine and his government for the thousands of soldiers returning from the front line.
Despite the war on everyone’s minds, Maksym Kurochkin, co-founder and artistic director of the theaterpresents the project in a relaxed and festive atmosphere. Listen, here we go, we’re open.he rejoices. We guarantee at least one performance, maybe two. One of them will focus more on documentary texts, because we will work according to the verbatim method. And the other will consist of artistic texts. »
After the artistic director, it is the soldiers’ turn to speak. My name is Oleksandr Zhuhan, code name Raccoonone of them introduces himself. I am still in the service, but before that I worked in a theater. We had projects with authors, but they could not be realized. I want to finally do this, to develop something here. It seems to me that this is exactly the kind of place that is suitable to share directly our experience as soldiers. We see this gap between civilians, ethnic groups, Ukrainians and non-Ukrainians. They say that Westerners cannot understand us. Precisely, the theater is the place and the way to share our experience with these people. “, he analyzes.
Oleksandr Zhuhan is not unknown to Ukrainians. A comedian before the full-scale Russian invasion, he was also one of the first soldiers to dare to openly display his homosexuality and to campaign for the recognition and acceptance of LGBTQ+ community within the armed forces.
Among those who will help veterans find their way are also civilians and professionals, such as actress Kateryna Vyshneva, whose husband is in the army. It is not only a question of heroism, war also fills the darkest pages of our historyexplains the actress, who is keen to highlight the impact of war within homes. These are the women who survive the occupation, who are raped, who have to hide their husbands and explain to their children why it is like this and every day answer the question “Where is Dad?”
It is also to rediscover the desire to live that this theater was born. And the veterans’ theater is part of dozens of initiatives aimed at facilitating this return to life before.
An international report to be found in full in the program Accents d’Europe.
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