I Left Ukraine 2022

Südalinna Theatre

How do you become who you are? How are our past experiences and experiences, both joyful and upsetting, reflected in today? And how do the lives of our parents, grandparents and distant predecessors resonate in our present day, as far as we know?

Merle Karusoo (1944) is a classic of Estonian documentary theatre. After her experience as a sociologist, she changed Estonian theatre irrevocably by becoming a stage director under Voldemar Panso. He made productions on honest themes about life itself as early as the 1970s. At first they were banned, later they were no longer dared. In 2006, his play “Today we do not play” was staged in our theatre, with our current actors Aleksandr Kuchmezov, Dmitry Kozyakov and Tatyana Yegorushkina.

Over the years, Karusoo has made productions about the parents of sick children, deportees, people living with HIV and Estonian soldiers in Afghanistan (both in the 1980s and 2000s). “Everyone has a right to their own life story, absolutely everyone,” he said in an interview. He is interested in reality itself in all its contradictions. Not coincidentally, one of his longest-running projects is a series of productions called “Who am I? ”

8 March. Most of the shops are empty, especially of alcohol. It's dangerous to eat in the courtyard, several houses have already been hit. There's a flower shop on the side street. The door is open. The shop is full of flowers and there is a sign on the counter: “Take what you want”, recalls the actor, who used to work at the Mariupol theatre. Karusoo's new production features actors who came to our theatre after the Mariupol Revolution.

Director: Merle Karusoo
Scenography: Anita Kremm
Music design: Aleksandr Zhedeljov
Light desing: Anton Andreyuk
Stage manager: Tatyana Kaur
Stage: Oleksandra Levytska, Yevgeny Kravets, Ilya Bolotov

The performance is in one act and lasts 1 hour and 20 minutes.
The theatre does not recommend the performance for children under 16.

Premiere 9 April 2025 in the small hall of the Russian Theatre.

Loe lisaks

https://www.veneteater.ee/et/repertuaar/ma-jatsin-ukraina-2022/787