Kharkiv student actors impress New Yorkers with "Arabesques" (04/28/96)

Kharkiv student actors impress New Yorkers with "Arabesques"

by Roman Woronowycz

NEW YORK - At its finest, "Arabesques" was an entrancing exploration of the dichotomies as well as the new choices that exist in the life of Ukraine's youth, growing up in a Soviet system that expired just as these young adults prepared to take their place in it. It ruminated on the contradictions that have surfaced in a system moving from communism to capitalism, and returning from atheism to more spiritual beliefs. It also touched lightly on other matters attractive to youth - hope, idealism, etc.

At other times it became an overly drawn-out dialogue, stuck too often on the obvious. Because the play went on without interruption for two hours and offered little in the form of visual stimulation, it was, at times, difficult to follow.

"Arabesques" is a one-act play done with few stage props, no scenery and simple costumes that weaves an elaborate tapestry of ideas in an extended conversation between three young men and a woman, interspersed with youthful games and playful interaction. It was presented by student-actors from Kharkiv and is based on the works of Mykola Khvyliovy, Vasyl Symonenko and Hryhoriy Skovoroda. The students were here as part of the Creative Youth of Ukraine program under the auspices of the Smoloskyp publishing house.

The play, written and directed by Svitlana Oleshko, a student at Kharkiv State University, and featuring Natalia Tsymbal, Vadym Korobka, Dmytro Turkevych and Mykhailo Ozerov, leads the viewer into a montage of ideological, political and spiritual contradictions in Ukraine today. Barefoot and dressed in stark canvas garments, the four young actors expressed a dynamic tension as their characters bounced ideas and opinions off one another. The tightly constructed dialogue written by Ms. Oleshko explores concepts of the individual versus the nation, idealism versus cynicism, religion versus communism. In the end it is a search for the Ukrainian persona in a world that has been turned on its head and overhauled in the last few years.

The more than 100 people who saw the performance on March 2 in New York were taken by its passion, its tightly woven script and the honesty brought by the actors to the roles.

Afterwards, Ms. Oleshko spoke with the crowd and said that she is puzzled why people are surprised that a Ukrainian-language theater group exists in Kharkiv. She explained that Kharkiv has one of the most developed theater scenes in Ukraine, although she did admit that most groups were Russian-speaking. She also explained that, unlike in the United States, theater-goers in Ukraine are predominantly young.

She thanked Osyp Zinkewych, director of Smoloskyp, for the financial wherewithall he has given the group and for providing the opportunity for them to perform outside of their hometown.

The troupe toured the United States with a second group of four young intellectuals: Kyiv City Deputy Oles Doniy, who led the student hunger strikes of 1990, authors Maksym Rozumny and Andriy Kokotiukha and poet Serhiy Zhadan. The four have their own presentation (see adjoining story), which is given apart from the performance by the Kharkiv students.

The two groups, in New York courtesy of the Ukrainian Congress Committee of America, the Ukrainian American Coordinating Council and the Coordinating Committee to Aid Ukraine, visited most of the major Ukrainian communities in the United States and the Canadian city of Toronto before returning to New York the weekend of March 29 for a farewell dinner and an encore performance.

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