Unpublished Ukrainian play sees new life
An unpublished translation of a Ukrainian dramatic work, La riposte by Neda Nejdana, has been published by the University of Strasbourg Press. Although published in Ukraine in 2017, the play has not lost any of its strength.Play explores European blindness before the war
The play places its audience before the blindness of Europeans prior to February 24, 2022, and offers a window into a genre whose political and cultural importance in Ukraine is still underestimated. The play features a long monologue punctuated by pauses and perpetual questions, with a single woman carrying the narrative.Minimalist stage and symbolic elements
She is referred to as "She," described as "between twenty and forty years old," appearing "dressed in neutral, comfortable black clothes." All other characters remain offstage. The war is present between the lines, but there is no rich, ornate, or technical set. The playwright describes a "scene almost entirely empty, except for an object that allows one to sit," specifying in parentheses: "preferably something other than a traditional chair."Personal request with political weight
The play begins with a received message, a request that may seem trivial: her childhood friend would like her to be her wedding witness. However, the request carries significant meaning when considering that the friend is Russian and the war links their peoples. The playwright weaves the threads of a singular social, cultural, and political fabric, where personal stories and great history intertwine over several centuries.Historical and cultural ties examined
The fabric has long linked the two peoples, so strongly that some have referred to them as "brothers." In her work Never Brothers? Ukraine and Russia: A Post-Soviet Tragedy, political scientist Anna Colin Lebedev described the multiple dimensions of this fabric, as well as the enormous "chasm" gradually appearing between the two post-Soviet societies.Reference to Goethe's classic
The threads of this fabric do not stop at the surface; they are tied in the mind. "A world war is taking place," asserts She. "But it is particular, hybrid. It is not a war for territories [...]. There is a war for souls: Mephistopheles against Faust." This reference to Goethe's work runs through the entire monologue. If She sings the air of Mephistopheles accompanied by her drum, it is in memory of Him, her lover who died at the front.Shared vision of freedom
With Faust, they share the same horizon: a "free people, on free land," assures Neda Nejdana in an interview in 2024. One is willing to give his life, the other, his soul. But today, of this lyrical singing lover, only the sound of the voice remains. His scent, which She knows is ephemeral. And this child she carries within her. He has returned to the front, without knowing he was soon to become a father. "Maybe I should have told him? Hmmm? And all of a sudden, he would have stayed?"Hybrid form and contemporary relevance
The playwright defines La riposte as a "hybrid drama," emphasizing a mixture of opposites: of horrible and beautiful, of fantastic and documentary, of fictional and factual. In a preface, Victoire Feuillebois specifies the place of this play within the repertoire of contemporary Ukrainian theater, noting that it moves away from both verbatim theater and the genre of mystery, opening another path that rehabilitates tragic fiction at the heart of current events.Roots in Ukrainian theatrical tradition
The play is embedded in a long history of Ukrainian theater, which begins as early as the Middle Ages with the vertep, the Ukrainian version of puppet theater. The role of theater becomes crucial from the beginning of the 20th century, and eminently political during the Soviet period.Artists and their sacrifices
Artists such as Les Kurbas and Mikola Koulich, who died in the Sandarmokh camp on November 3, 1937, paid with their lives for the defense of Ukrainian culture. Today, artists are still targeted. The lyrical singing lover, Wassyl Slipak, nickname Mif ("the myth" in French), an abbreviation of Mephistopheles, died on June 29, 2016, near Luhansk, killed by a sniper during the Donbass war.Power of words and performance
The play raises the question of whether words alone are sufficient to respond, to reverse a power dynamic. Beyond this question, Ukrainian theater today appears as a living performance, invoking the memory of Ukrainian souls who gave pulse to Ukrainian culture, whatever the price. Today, in Ukraine, theaters are full. Applause is given, the dead are brought back to life. Stories are told, and perhaps one responds then.
