Lora's got problems: a baby in tears, a flat in chaos, and a husband up to his eyes in debt. How could it be any worse? Husband Andriy could disappear - that's how. A play about life on the front lines of the new Ukraine.
Take. Love. Run. is the work of Kyiv playwright Oksana Savchenko. The London-based Royal Court Theatre and British Council Ukraine have teamed up in an innovative approach that develops emerging writers like Oksana.
Now, after 18 months of hands-on instruction and encouragement we have results. First off, Caroline Steinbeis, UK stage director and international associate at the Royal Court Theatre, directed Kyiv actors in a staged reading of Oksana's play in its debut at Kyiv's Tyzhden Aktualnoi Piesy (Week of the Contemporary Play) last November. Then, in March 2013 the play was performed in English before a London audience by British actors at the Royal Court Theatre.
Andriy Bilous, artistic director at the Kyiv Molodiy theatre was there for the London event. His reaction: "no Ukrainian director I know would stage this. It's dark enough that they wouldn't be able to distance themselves enough to do it justice. How can a story about a young family in crisis and in debt make you laugh, and cringe and still somehow inspire hope? It just does. We have to do it."
So, now Caroline is set to direct Oksana's play a third time: this time in Kyiv. From Kyiv via London and back home again. Molodiy Theatre. The big stage. The full-length production. In Ukrainian for Ukrainians about life in Ukraine.
Tickets can be bought at Molodiy theatre or on parter.ua.