Ukraine director revives 'lost' Mariupol theatre after imprisonment
The Peninsula
Kyiv, Ukraine: The day after Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022, theatre director Anatoliy Levchenko was due to stage an opening night in Mariupol. But...
Kyiv, Ukraine: The day after Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022, theatre director Anatoliy Levchenko was due to stage an opening night in Mariupol.
But the port city has been under Russian occupation since it was flattened in a brutal siege in 2022 -- with Levchenko's former theatre bombed despite civilians taking refuge there.
He was then captured by Moscow's forces and imprisoned in Donetsk for 10 months, before being released without charge and fleeing the separatist stronghold with his wife and son.
Almost two years later, he has revived his Mariupol company by staging a symbolic opening night of a dark comedy called "Light at the End of the Tunnel" in Kyiv.
"This is a show for our family, so to speak, for our own people," Levchenko said in Kyiv's Les Kurbas Centre, where Mariupol refugees made up much of the audience. The organisers had to squeeze in more seats to accommodate the audience on opening night.
