November 2023
KHARKIV CALLING
Premiere on 09 November 2023
09 November 2023 at 9.15 pm
12 November 2023 at 8 pm
Monologuefestival at TD Berlin
In August 2022, the Costa Compagnie conducted research in Eastern Ukraine. In Kharkiv and on the nearby frontline, they interviewed four women who volunteered for the armed struggle against the Russian attack and the autocratic system that came with it. The examination of the material poses the question: What would we do?
Zhenya is a human rights lawyer and now a drone pilot in a reconnaissance unit. Helena is a documentary film director and now a medic in a combat unit. Oksana and Tatjana, two press officers, report from the front with their cameras.
As part of the Monologue Festival, the Ukrainian acting-student Anna Mrachkovska will be dealing with the interviews for the first time and within a 3-week-labratory will create an intermedial monologue, including her own biography and refugee experience, which will attempt to approach this radical present in a performative and cinematic way.
What values and systems are defended in Ukraine beyond one’s own life and country? Would one stake one’s life to fight for democracy and freedom? How does it feel to perform a theatre monologue about these questions 2,000 km away in Berlin, while friends and relatives at home are involved in warfare?
In English and Ukrainian with English surtitles
Tickets and Info about Ballhaus Ost Berlin here
PRESS REVIEWS
These are sensitive, precise depictions of a life in an everyday state of emergency. (…) The women speak directly and at the same time these quiet films lasting several minutes leave room for a sense of ambivalence.
Elena Philipp, 10.11.2023, Berliner Morgenpost
The young actress Anna Mrachkovska (…) tells of her remorse at having left the country, of her mother, who insulted her as a “traitor” when she left. Mrachkovska provides a very delicate, fragile and sometimes contradictory framing of the (video) interviews. But it is precisely this fragility that is a strength. It creates closeness and opens up a view of the consequences of war beyond the headlines, grand narratives and shock-inducing images.
Tom Mustroph, 14.11.2023, TAZ – Die Tageszeitung
A story of flight and at the same time a story of emancipation, because she went into exile against her parents’ wishes in order to live here with her female partner. (…) Despite its rough form, this work also opens up at least an idea of the different life choices that can be made during war – and thus enables a further encounter with the “other”. …a powerful topic, … and interesting video material.”
Sophie Diesselhorst, 10.11.2023, Nachtkritik
Writer and Performer: Anna Mrachkovska Writer, Director and Interviews On Site: Felix Meyer-Christian Director of Photography: Thomas Oswald Video Editor and Dramaturg: Marichka Lukianchuk Costume Designer and Artistic Collaborator: Zoë Sebanyiga
With great thanks to all interview partners in Ukraine!
A production of Costa Compagnie together with the Monologue Festival Funded by Berlin Senate Department for Culture and Social Cohesion.
