Finborough Theatre Presents FOUR POEMS FROM UKRAINE

The ProEnglish Theatre of Ukraine in Kyiv and the Finborough Theatre, London, UK, continue their ongoing partnership with a unique poetry collaboration, premiering online at www.finboroughtheatre.co.uk from Friday, 24 February 2023 at dawn (6.23am), a year exactly since Russia invaded Ukraine.

Four Poems From Ukraine features four classic Ukrainian poems of the last 180 years, performed first in English by British actors, filmed in London and Toronto; and then again in Ukrainian (with English subtitles) by Ukrainian actors, filmed in the bombsites of Irpyn.

The performers include poet, composer and activist Bréon Rydell who recently returned from an extended fact-finding mission to Ukraine; Linda Thorson, best known for her iconic performance as Tara King in The Avengers; star of stage and screen Toby Stephens; and Kristin Milward who in December 2022 became the first foreign actor to perform in Ukraine since the invasion with the Finborough Theatre production of Pussycat in Memory of Darkness (which will shortly return for another run at the Finborough Theatre). The Ukrainian actors are all members of the ProEnglishTheatre of Ukraine - Alex Borovenskiy, Artistic Director of the ProEnglish Theatre of Ukraine; Yulia Prylutska, Daniil Prymachov and Kateryna Yakymets.

The poets are Taras Shevchenko (1814-1861), widely considered as one of the founders of the modern written Ukrainian language; Lina Kostenko (born 1930), famed for reviving Ukrainian-language lyric poetry, and one of the defining figures of Ukraine's Sixties poetry movement; Serhiy Zhadan (born 1974), one of the most significant contemporary poets of Ukraine, whose influence extends into further fields through his work as an essayist, musician, translator and social activist; and Kateryna Kalytko (born 1982), winner of the 2017 Joseph Conrad Literature prize.

The video is entirely free-to-view, but the theatre is asking for donations to the ProEnglish Theatre of Ukraine to support their ongoing work at www.proenglishtheatre.com/support-us.

Four Poems from Ukraine is presented as part of the Finborough Theatre's ongoing #VoicesFromUkraine series. Live productions included Two Ukrainian Plays featuring Natal'ya Vorozhbit's Take The Rubbish Out, Sasha in a double bill with Pussycat in Memory of Darkness, pairing Ukraine's leading contemporary playwright together with a Ukrainian playwright making her UK debut, which played at the Finborough Theatre in August. Pussycat in Memory of Darkness will return by popular demand for a further run in March 2023.

Online, #VoicesFromUkraine series is streaming free-to-view releases of Otvetka and He Who Opens The Door by Neda Nezhdana; The Peed-Upon Armored Personnel Carrier by Oksana Gritsenko; A Dictionary of Emotions in a Time of War by Yelena Astasyeva; A (Ukrainian) Midsummer Night's Dream, a version of Shakespeare's classic comedy performed in Ukrainian; interviews with Ukrainian theatre practitioners, and more. All are now available on the Finborough Theatre YouTube channel, and available with subtitles on Scenesaver.

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