Ukraine's national theatre, the Lesya Ukrainka National Academic Drama Theatre, will bring its production of Brian Friel’s play Translations to the Abbey Theatre stage in Dublin this June.
A 27-strong theatre company will travel from Kyiv to perform Friel's acclaimed play, set in Donegal in 1833, which concerns the renaming of Irish landmarks and place names by the British, and addresses themes of cultural sovereignty and belonging.
The theatre premiered its version of the play in Ukraine in October 2022, where audiences have found powerful resonances with the ongoing Russian invasion of the country.
Watch, via RTÉ News: Ballybeg to Bakhmut: Ukrainians embrace Translations
Co-Directors of the Abbey Theatre, Caitríona McLaughlin and Mark O'Brien said in a statement: "Sometimes an idea is too compelling and critical to ignore.
"When Stephen Rea talks about helicopters in Derry flying low over the Guildhall in a strategic attempt to drown out their original 1980 performance of Translations, you get a sense of how dangerous and potent the spoken word can be. When he and John Cunningham then sit in the Abbey Theatre bar and explain that the Lesya Ukrainka National Academic Drama Theatre have been performing the play in Kyiv for the last year, you understand something else too; that in this moment it is our national theatre’s civic duty to make sense of the world we’re living in by presenting their response to the cataclysmic events they're currently living through".
Supported by the Department of Foreign Affairs, the Abbey Theatre performances will be in Ukrainian with English surtitles provided. Tickets are available at a special rate of €5 for people displaced by war or crisis.
Assistant Managing Director for International Affairs at Lesya Ukrainka National Academic Drama Theatre and Assistant Director of Translations, Anastasya Pavlenko said: "From the first days of the war, Lesya Ukrainka National Academic Drama Theatre has been defending the cultural front and supporting those who are fighting on the front lines. Showing the performance in Ireland is a way to remind the world that we exist, that we are still alive. It is a way of expressing gratitude to the people of Ireland, who were one of the first to open their borders and provide shelter for internally displaced persons. This is an opportunity to remind those who are not at home about home. Translations is about us."
Tthe Lesya Ukrainka National Academic Drama Theatre, will bring its production of Translations to the Abbey stage from Tuesday, 20th – Saturday, 24th of June - find out more here.
