TRAVELOGUE: Kharkiv home to historic Shevchenko Theater (08/06/00)

TRAVELOGUE: Kharkiv home to historic Shevchenko Theater

by Virlana Tkacz and Irena Makaryk

KHARKIV - Few tourists and scholars visit Kharkiv, located at the eastern end of Ukraine. The city center combines sites of great historical interest, such as the 16th century Uspensky Monastery and the Collegium where Hryhorii Skvoroda lectured, with some of the earliest examples of Constructivist architecture, the Derzhprom complex, and more recent arrivals: fashionable outdoor cafes. But the heart of the city for a scholar and a lover of Ukrainian theater is the tiny museum in the Shevchenko Theater.

The museum houses an archival collection of original photos and documents from the history of this theater company, going back to its very beginnings. The theater was started in 1922 as the Berezil Artistic Association in Kyiv by the great Ukrainian director Les Kurbas. In 1926 the company moved to Kharkiv to its present location. Here Kurbas first staged the plays of Mykola Kulish and brought his best productions from Kyiv, including "Jimmie Higgins" and "Macbeth." When, in 1933, Kurbas was purged from his post as artistic director, the theater was renamed the Shevchenko Theater.

The museum is located in a corner of the second-floor lobby of this large theater complex. When you open the doors Les Kurbas, his actors Valentyna Chestiakova, Yosyp Hirniak, Olympia Dobrovolska and Oleksander Serdiuk look down at you from their large painted canvases. The two small rooms of the museum are crammed with files, photos, posters, busts, and various theatrical memorabilia. But even greater treasures are hidden in the cabinets. There were manuscripts of memoirs on the Berezil era, scripts and musical notes to the productions. There are books from Kurbas' personal library. We were particularly interested in the photos of such Kurbas productions as "Oedipus Rex," "Gas," "Jimmie Higgins," "Macbeth," "Myna Mazailo" and "Maklena Grasa." There are also many reminders of Stalin's purges, including stamps on much of the material with the ominous word "Provireno" (Verified.)

The custodian of the museum is Nina Medvedeva, who lovingly tends to the museum and its needs. An elderly woman, she befriended Yulia Fomina, the last living Berezil actor who was the director of the museum until her death several years ago. Mrs. Medvedeva told us that Ambrosi Buchma, one of the leading actors of Berezil, originally lived in the two rooms that house the museum, which were then also a gathering place for the company. Buchma often played chess here with his friends. To this day the museum attracts young actors who come here to be inspired by Kurbas and fed by Mrs. Medvedeva.

Two floors above the museum is a large room that houses an extensive library overseen by the resident dramaturg (literary advisor), Olena Sedunova. For its wide spectrum of books, from rare 19th century to current texts on costume, stage design, history, literature, theoretical studies and play texts, the library is visited by directors, actors, costumers and set designers.

Kurbas and his actors are still felt as a significant presence not only in the museum and library, but also in parts of the city. In particular, the enormous monument dedicated to Taras Shevchenko and representing aspects of his poetic creations is modeled on a number of actors in Kurbas' troupe. Anatolii Starodub led us to the Kharkiv, Museum of Literature, founded in the late 1980s, which also houses theatrical archives, including Kurbas' passport, letters of well-known literary personalities, particularly of the 1920s, and books and exhibits ranging from the 16th to the 20th centuries, and including colorful children's books.

The spirit of Kurbas reigns especially strong in Kharkiv's theaters. At the Shevchenko Theater, where the stage is unchanged since Kurbas' day, we were fortunate to see the preview of Karpenko-Karyi's 19th-century play "Who is Guilty?," which will officially premiere on October 1. Directed by Anatolii Lytko, designed by Tetiana Medvid, with music by Hennadia Frolova, lighting by Volodmyr Minakov, the lyrical production includes a large cast of young, energetic actors.

On the other side of town, in the elegant Building of the Architects, the Kharkiv Theater Laboratory presented an avant-garde production of Yves Jamiaque's "Monsieur Amilcar," or the "Person Who Pays," directed by Stepan Pasichnyk.

Throughout Kharkiv, Russian remains the language of choice, although Ukrainian still maintains a tenuous foothold, one, that is, surprisingly, enthusiastically supported by some of the Russian intelligentsia of the city, people like Sergey Gordeev (who heads the chair of directing at the Kharkiv State Academy of Culture) or Tatiana Kikteva (whose father worked with Kurbas), who are concerned not only by the decline of governmental support for Ukrainian culture, but also by the growing vulgarization of culture as a whole.

Some areas of life continue to encourage interesting literary links. While new hotels have sprung up in Kharkiv, we stayed at the historic building and headquarters of the Rukh Party, which shares space with the Institute of Far Eastern Studies, where Farsi and Sanskrit, among other languages, are taught. Kurbas would have approved.

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