Ukraine Unbroken charts twelve turbulent years of modern Ukrainian history told through five gripping plays. The production consists of: Ukraine Unbroken Act 1: Demonstrations & Invasions Always: In Always by Jonathan Myerson (BBC’s Nuremberg: The Trial of the Nazi War Criminals), a married couple is held hostage inside Hotel Ukraina in 2014 as their son protests in Maidan Square below. Five Day War: David Edgar (The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby; Destiny) takes a darkly comic and sinister look at the ambition and delusion of Russia’s 2022 “Special Military Operation” – an invasion that was not an invasion and a war that was not a war. Ukraine Unbroken Act 2: War Three Mates: Natalka Vorozhbyt (Bad Roads) explores the shame of survival in Three Mates, translated by Sasha Dugdale – a darkly humorous confession from a Ukrainian man in hiding from conscription, reflecting on the different paths through the war he and his friends have taken. Wretched Things: David Greig’s (Dunsinane; The Events) Wretched Things tells a story of Ukrainian front-line troops who have captured a wounded North Korean soldier and must decide whether to risk their own lives to save his. Taken: Cat Goscovitch (A Russian Doll) confronts the harrowing reality of the 20,000 Ukrainian children stolen by Russia in Taken, which follows one mother’s search for her daughter through a world of propaganda and re-education, where both childhood and country are erased.
