Mothermotherland is a devised performance that explores motherhood, motherland, and Ukrainian and American experience through the lens of Mykola Khyvylovy’s autobiographical short story “I am (a Romantic)”. Written in 1924, the short story follows I, the head of the secret police (the Cheka), who must decide, with the help of his comrades: Dr. Tahabat, Andrusha, and the degenerate Sentinel, whether or not to execute his own mother to protect his idea of a commune beyond the hills. This performance was developed through a co-writing process by members of Slovo. Theater Group. The performance was devised in the styles of Les Kurbas (theatre of movement and gestus), Jacques Lecoq (physical theatre), and post-documentary theatre. In this piece, there are multiple realities existing and overlapping with one another; there are the actors and their personal experiences, the actors playing themselves and their personal stories, there are the characters of “I am (a Romantic)”, and there is Mykola Khyvylovy.

The performance run time is approximately 55 minutes. Please note that there will be talk-backs following the performances on Saturday, January 14th, and Sunday, January 15th, and an afterparty with a live DJ on Friday, January 13th.

About Slovo. Theater group:

Slovo. Theater Group was founded in April of 2022 to fight against the oppression of Ukrainian culture by promoting Ukrainian culture abroad.

In 2021, Pittsburgh-born and Paris-based playwright Audrey Rose Dégez applied to residency Slovo, an artistic residency in the historic Slovo Building in Kharkiv. Her project proposal was to write and workshop an original work based on Mykola Khyvylovy’s 1924 novella “I am (a Romantic)” and around the topic of “Motherland.” Khyvylovy lived, worked, and ultimately committed suicide in 1933 in Slovo Building as a protest against the Soviet extermination of Ukrainian artists and intellectuals. She was accepted for a residency in September and October of 2022.

The Russian invasion of February 24th rendered the original project idea impossible, but through the generosity of a large number of private and institutional supporters, Audrey Rose was able to bring the project to the United States. In April, she selected 5 Ukrainian artists from Kharkiv to join her in Pittsburgh for a unique 5-month artistic residency, during which the group would devise an original piece based on Khyvylovy’s novella. On July 13th, she left her home and husband Louis in France and returned to her Motherland with their 6-month-old daughter Lili Maritchka to prepare for the project. On August 14th, she was joined by Daria Holovchanska, Yuliia Linnik, Maksym Panchenko, Olesia Zakharova, and Veronika Shuster in Pittsburgh and over the last 5 months the group has been devising the performance.

-------------------------

In partnership with CoLAB Arts.

Thank you to all of our sponsors. A special thank you to:

James Miller, The Posner Foundation, Allan Holt, The Wilke Foundation, JP Morgan Charitable Giving Fund, Larry Lebowitz and Carrie Thompson of Denton’s, Cohen & Grigsby legal practice, Louis Dégez, and David & Dawne Hickton

Time: 7:00 PM — 8:00 PM EST

Free!

Registration