Cultural life in Ukraine: Music and art survive in war

Cultural life in Ukraine: Music and art survive in war

Olha Mesheryakova does not know what the next year has provided for her life in the capital of Ukraine drawn by the war - neither for your family nor for your business. But one thing is certain: in 2025 she will take part in a dozen performances in the Kiev theaters. This thought gives her hope.

hope through culture

"This gives a certain expectation, creates structure and offers support at a time when the world around me has gone crazy. I know exactly what I will do on December 23, because I bought the cards in summer. To be honest, I have hope and faith. It is a kind of magic," said the entrepreneur Mesheryakova.

She is not alone in her passion for theater. In order to get tickets for a popular performance, like thousands of other Ukrainians, she has to work towards it for months.

The Kiev Theater as a refuge

In a darkened street in the center of Kiev, mid -December, the cars slowly drive, while hundreds of people flock to the small, historical building of the IVAN Franko National Academic Drama Theater, which is only a few hundred meters from the presidential residence.

Since the stage was reopened six months after the beginning of Russia's extensive invasion in 2022, the theater has been fully booked.

During this time, the theater, its actors and the audience have changed. The director Yevhen Nyshchuk performed military service in 2022, as did many of his colleagues. For example, all three actors who played the main roles in "Three Comrades", an adaptation of Erich Maria Remarque, published after the First World War, went to the front and were only able to return to the stage a year later.

change through the war

"Remarque had a completely different sound color. The reality of the war, which has already affected all, has changed us. I felt that the audience has changed his perception of the theater and has more appetite to this energy exchange," explained Nyshchuk, who is also an actor, to CNN.

nyshchuk was particularly sensitive to this changed appreciation of Remarques work because he and his colleagues continued to be in military service. To list the pieces, they received permission from their command for short exemptions.

Since the beginning of the war, the IVAN Franko Drama Theater has staged more than 1,500 performances that have been visited by more than half a million spectators. Sixteen pieces were premiered, including "the witch of Konotop", a mystical piece that deals with topics such as love and power. The tickets were sold out within a few minutes, and many Ukrainians are on a waiting list for everyone who is available.

success despite adverse circumstances

The director Ivan Uryvskyi was amazed at the success of the play and the influx of new theater visitors.

"Thousands of tens of thousands of spectators want to go to the theater. I cannot find an explanatory model for it," he said to CNN. Sold-out performances are the rule in most Kiev theaters, according to their websites and online ticket services.

Uryvskyi notes that not everyone comes to the theater to escape the sad reality of the war. It is often the opposite.

"Some have to immerse themselves in the present and understand themselves. And they do not necessarily want to immerse themselves in a comedy, they do not need a diversion mechanism. They need a serious dialogue. Maybe they even want to process their tears in the theater," said Uryvskyi.

cultural life despite dangers

Even if people want to escape from the war, they often do not succeed, since ideas are regularly interrupted by air protection sirens. The audience has to leave the theater building and bring themselves to safety at the nearest subway station. If the danger is over within an hour, the performance continues. Otherwise the performance will be made up for another day.

Both new pieces and those that have been in the theater's repertoire for years receive thunderous applause from the audience.

book scene in the upswing

The number of bookstores in Ukraine grew to almost 500 from 200 before the war. The largest of them, Sens, opened during the war in Kiev's main street. With over 57,000 books, the shop is full at all times of the day and reports more than half a million customers this year. The event plan of the store is fully booked in advance.

For his founder Oleksiy Erinchak, the opening of such a large -scale project in war times was logical. He began the war as the owner of a small bookstore that opened the evening before the invasion. In the first few months of the conflict, this developed into a volunteer hub and became so popular that Erinchak thought about a new, larger space. In the meantime, the book market and the needs of the audience have changed due to the war.

The escape to the literature

"A book is the most convenient way to spend the time in war when nothing is predictable. Many people have switched to the Ukrainian language (from Russian). They try to understand what it means to be Ukrainians. And books make it much easier to do this," said Erinchak to Cnn.

According to the Ukrainian Book Institute, the number of adults who read books every day has doubled to 16 % during the war.

"Perhaps it is the war or stress, during which a person simply hides under the ceiling, opens a book and travels to other worlds to escape the whole. Or she does not travel to other worlds, but immerse yourself deeper to understand why this has happened in our lifetime. And books actually have many answers that you feel, understand and feel better," said Erinchak.

culture as a lifegiastic

A few songs before the end of an anniversary concert this autumn one of the most popular Ukrainian bands, Okean Elzy, was proclaimed an air alarm in Kiev.

Part of the audience went into the subway to get to safety, followed by the band. There, on the subway levels, the performance with a loudspeaker instead of a professional sound system, only with guitars-and hundreds of voices that sang every hit.

"The 30th anniversary concerts of Okean Elzy are a mirror of our story. We were together for 30 years: at large concerts and in shelter, in stadiums and in rifle trenches. But it is not the place that counts, it is our cohesion," the band later posted on their Instagram account.

In the almost three years since the extensive invasion, the front man of Okean Elzy, Svyatoslav Vakarchuk, gave more than 300 concerts for the military, including in positions near the front lines. In some videos that were posted on the band's social media, artillery fire can be heard while Vakarchuk sings for the military. Okean Elzy donated almost 280 million UAH (USD 6.7 million) to the armed forces in Ukraine, said a spokesman for the band.

The IVAN Franko Drama Theater also regularly organizes benefit performances and has already collected over 1.2 million USD for the armed forces. In addition, it offers its podium for ensembles who have lost their theater through the Russian occupation or can no longer occur there due to adverse security conditions.

The contrast between city and front

The lively cultural life in the hinterland is contrasting in the contrast to the situation in the Front areas Ukraine, where Russia continues to annex areas. Yegor Firsov, a main sergeant that has been fighting against the Russians since 2022, says that he is generally benevolent towards an active cultural life, even if some of the fighters may fight in a "real chaos" on the front.

"When it comes to women and children, I and my comrades support it," he said to CNN. "Because people are distracted by the stress factors and want to experience something real in such difficult times, and bookstores and theater are connected to real life."

and on the rare days when Firsov succeeds in coming from the front to Kiev, he also visits concerts. "Culture is part of our lives, it affects both the war and partly leisure, because even we as soldiers need a mental healing, have to distract us in order to remain resistant."