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“НАШЕ ЖИТТЯ”, ВЕРЕСЕНЬ 201 3 WWW. UNWLA.ORG 17 REVIEW of Yara's Fire. Water. Night. by Olena Jennings At the heart of Fire. Water. Night. is Ukrainian playwright Lesya Ukrainka’s (1871 - 1913) verse drama Forest Song and a love story between a human Luke, played by Jeremy Tardy, and a forest nymph, played by Jenny Leona. The forest comes alive as trees are played by actors, emphasizing the sensitivity of nature. Throug h- out the piece nature is threatened and in the end , it is ov ertaken by technology as Oleksander Dovzhenko’s film Earth offers a glance into what it is like when farming is mechanized. Director Virlana Tkacz makes use of every inch of space in La MaMa’s Ellen Stewart Theatre. The show begins with a song in the l obby as a c- tresses sca tter and part the crowd await entry into the theatre. When the audience follows the actors into the theatre the audience takes a seat on ca r- pets in what is traditionally the stage area. The actors perform in the bleachers, bathed in warm light. Each configuration of actors’ bodies as trees offers a beautiful snapshot. The piece is chore o- graphed by Shigeko Suga. The audience then turns around to find themselves in a video forest, created by Mikhail Shraga and Volodymyr Klyuzko with V ivian Strosberg. They are mesme r- ized by the scene of summer solstice St. John’s Eve when actors jump over bonfires to ward off evil spirits. Light flashes on stage. The audience is then guided into the lobby with the pretense of catching fireflies. The water nymph , played by Romana Soutus , is mischi e- vous . She wishes to drown humans. A member of the audience is pulled from the group, his head is immersed in water, and he comes away wearing a funny animal mask. Then the audience is given a love potion to drink. Then they learn the words to a song, My v kry - vo - mu tansiu idemo . Finally, audience members are pulled one by one into a circle that twists and bends around the room and in the end, makes its way back into the theatre. This time the audience s its where the actors acted. Yara Arts Group in “Fire. Water. Night.” The field is cut by Kylyna (Tamar Ilana) with Matt Nasser, Shigeko Suga, J Moliere, as Mother (Masha Pruss) looks on. Photo by Volodymyr Klyuzko. They are in for more visual treats as they face n a- ture projections. The most effective scene in the second act is one in which the actors are on the ground like stalks of rye. They are cut with the sickle crashing to the ground as the character played b y Tamar Ilana fiercely dances a flam enco dance . The show is filled with stunning images and fluid movement from one piece to the next. The audience seems to move in time with the a c- tors, participating in the performance by esta b- lishing a oneness with nature. The show reveals how beauty can be destroyed in a technology - driven world . Cont. from p. 16 sought to draw their own lineage to the rich pre - Soviet tradition of Ukrainian women's w riting . As the best and most recognized r epresentative of this tradition, Ukrainka was and continues to be a true model of what goo d women’s writing should be — a model which both Bichuya and Za buzhko have tried to emulate. And by choosing to engage specifically Lesya Ukra inka’s dramas and their philosophical ideas, these contemporary Ukrain i- an women authors have affirmed the richness and present - day relevance of Ukrainka’s dramatic texts. Let us hope that this fascinating literary di a logue between Lesya Ukrainka and the later generations of creat ive women continues in the future.
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