The play Caligula received the highest marks from French critics and was a sell-out at the Ukrainian Pavilion of the Future programme at the most prestigious theatre festival in Avignon, France.
This was reported in an exclusive commentary to an Ukrinform correspondent by Lyudmyla Harbuz, the theatre’s deputy general director for international cooperation and producer of the performance in Avignon.
‘It was our sixth show here, and in the middle of the day we received information about the sold-out. That is, they ran out of seats that they had the right to sell. The organisers were unable to provide more transport to take everyone to the place where we had our shows. After our request, the remaining tickets were unlocked for additional sales, giving people the opportunity to get to us on their own initiative,’ Garbuz said.
According to her, it was a historic challenge for both the project organisers and the National Theatre itself, which visited France for the first time.
‘For the Ivan Franko National Drama Theatre, it was the first such field project not only to France but also to Avignon, where the Ukrainian Institute had previously invited Ukrainian projects, but in a smaller format,’ says the deputy director.
As for the screenings of Caligula, the project began with a screening of the play in Kyiv back in September 2023 by two French producers – Frédéric Poty, who is currently the head of the Ukrainian Pavilion at La Manufacture, the operator of project screenings in France, and Patrick Penaud, director of the famous Sens Interdit theatre festival in Lyon.
The purpose of the performance was to strengthen Ukraine’s voice in Europe and to continue supporting its resistance to Russian aggression. In addition, the task was to open the Ivan Franko National Drama Theatre, the talented work of Ivan Uryvsky and the actors of the play to the French professional audience and the audience of the Avignon Festival, with a view to organising joint international projects and further tours of the play.
‘The French have a term for festival programmers. These are professionals who go to OFF festival performances on purpose, watch them, note them, and then get in touch to specify cooperation. For example, dozens of professionals from theatres in Lille, Montpellier, Lyon, Paris, and Alsace watched our performance. After that, we gained new friends, sympathisers and contacts that we will need to develop,’ says Garbuz.
Liudmyla Harbuz says they received extremely encouraging and supportive feedback. The French asked, among other things, why this screening was not included in the main programme, and why there were so few screenings. They also emphasised the high level of the actors and were interested in the theatre’s work in the context of the war in Ukraine.
Commenting on entering the European market, she noted the theatre’s participation in the development of two EU projects under the Creative Europe programme in early 2024. One of the projects is the European theatre platform Prospero, which involves 19 European theatres and festivals. The second international project is the Poetry Readings, initiated by the famous Parisian theatre Theatre de la Ville, which currently involves five other international partners in addition to Ukraine.
‘This is already part of our international programme for 2025, if all goes well. We are continuing our mission in times of war – we want to strengthen the voice of the Ukraine that creates, fights and produces a high-quality European cultural product. These are our methods of cultural diplomacy, and our participation in the Avignon Festival proved the feasibility of this,’ explains Garbuz.
Director Ivan Uryvsky began staging Caligula a few months before the full-scale invasion began, in collaboration with set designer Petro Bogomazov. The play premiered two years ago. According to critics, this play is a kind of anti-totalitarian, anti-dictatorial manifesto. Albert Camus wrote the play in 1944, during the Second World War.
The play was presented by La Manufacture in cooperation with the Ukrainian Institute with the support of the European Union and the International Renaissance Foundation as part of the European Renaissance of Ukraine project and is part of the Pavilion of the Future – Ukraine 2024 project.
As Ukrinform previously reported, the Ivan Franko National Academic Drama Theatre will perform Caligula at one of the oldest and most authoritative theatre festivals in the world in the French city of Avignon.
Source: Ukrinform
