O show, initially created in 2020, before the Russian invasion, was about how the inhabitants of Kiev saw the war that was taking place in eastern Ukraine, at the time “very distant”, but after a conversation between Pavlo Yurov and the director of the National Theater D Maria II, Pedro Penim, (institution that co-produces the play) the text was almost completely rewritten, when the bombings ceased to be just the daily life of those who lived in the eastern region of the country, the Ukrainian director told the Lusa agency.
For the play that will be presented on a single date on Friday at the Teatro Académico de Gil Vicente (TAGV), Pavlo Yurov drew on his experience as a ‘fixer’ (a person who acts as an interpreter and source of local knowledge for foreign journalists ) since the beginning of the invasion.
During this “intense” period and with a “mind-blowing” flow of events and information, he heard stories and testimonies that contributed to the writing process months later, which he ended up complementing with interviews with people who lived under the Russian military occupation in the last year.
With the interpretation of five Ukrainian actors (the play has subtitles in Portuguese), “Silence, Silence, Silence, Please” tells the story of a Ukrainian family and the various psychological and physical states that they experience during the invasion.
Looking back, Pavlo Yurov recognizes that in the first few months after the start of the invasion “there was no time for reflection”.
“I didn’t take many notes (at work as a ‘fixer’), because I couldn’t even think of any piece of art. For me, at the time, it seemed impossible to make art. I couldn’t focus”, he recalls, stressing who in part drew on his experience as a “witness and participant”.
The title is an attempt to translate an interview, in which a woman calls for some silence, “an emotional request”, from someone who just wants “to have peace with herself”.
“My main question is: Why is this all happening? I read a lot about wars and there has never been a day when there hasn’t been a war in the world. People kill people all the time and humanity is not able to tame that urge to aggression,” Pavlo Yurov told Lusa.
Initially, the Ukrainian director was expected to be with the other actors in Coimbra, preparing the presentation of the play, and to participate in a conversation that will take place at the end, in which Pedro Penim also participates, but the very contingencies of the war changed his turns.
To travel abroad, as a man in Ukraine over 18 and under 60, he needed an Army permit.
“I had a medical examination and four weeks ago I received a letter of mobilization”, he said, who is currently in a military camp in the Kiev region, but should soon go to the front of the war, in eastern Ukraine.
He will work in the Army’s press office, creating content, but also helping Ukrainian and foreign journalists in that context.
Video calls through the Zoom platform or recorded videos of rehearsals allow you to keep in touch with the actors in your free time and prepare the show that opens in Coimbra.
As for the future, he does not know what it will be like, after a year marked by fear and hope, as the various fronts of the war evolve.
As for the play, he hopes to present it in Ukraine, in an independent theater.
The show is presented in Coimbra as part of the National Odyssey project, in which the Teatro Nacional D. Maria II is programming outside its space, which is closed for works this year.
Also Read: Artists Involved in a Play Staged in Moscow Arrested
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