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“НАШЕ ЖИТТЯ”, ЛИПЕНЬ-СЕРПЕНЬ 2016 WWW.UNWLA.ORG 13 Dark Nights Bright Stars А review by Irena Gramiak Jeremy Tardy as Ira Aldridge and Sean Eden as Taras Shevchenko. Photo by Pavlo Terekhov. Powerful! Beautiful! Brilliant! These words echoed throughout the La Mama Theater in the East Vil- lage of New York on Sunday, June 5, 2016. The au- dience had just watched Dark Nights Bright Stars presented by the Yara Arts Group. The play, which depicts only a short time in Taras Shevchenko’s life, speaks volumes about his character and his passion for Ukraine. Set in 1858, it focuses on the meeting between Shevchenko, a famous Ukrainian writer and painter, and Ira Aldridge, an African American Shakespearean actor who performed in many Eu- ropean countries. The two met at the home of Count Tolstoy and though they did not speak a common language, they formed an incredible bond through art. Throughout the play simple words like “beautiful,” “mama,” and “home” are used to show the great similarities between the main characters and how the two men connected. The idea for Dark Nights Bright Stars was the conception of Yara Arts Group’s founding di- rector Virlana Tkacz, who is also a UNWLA Mem- ber at Large and a contributing editor of Our Life . The source material for the play was Ekaterina (Katya) Tolstoy Yunge’s diary, which detailed the interactions between Shevchenko and Aldridge that took place in her home. Excerpts from Shake- spearean plays and translations of Shevchenko’s poems (co-translated by Wanda Phipps and Ms. Tkacz) were prominently featured in the play. Jul- ian Kytasty created an original musical score for the production, which included traditional Ukrain- ian songs as well as songs from the AME Zion Church hymnal created by the church that Ira Al- dridge’s father attended. The concept of the play is wonderful; the acting was amazing. Powerful performances by Sean Eden (Taras Shevchenko) and Jeremy Tardy (Ira Aldridge) brought the characters to life. Ma- ria Pleshkevich portrayed a bubbly 15-year-old Katya (the daughter of Count Tolstoy) very well. Shona Tucker’s vocals filled the theater with pas- sion as she played the role of young Ira’s mother. Throughout the play, the actors’ dialogue and ac- tions were accompanied by the beautiful and flaw- less tones of the bandura played by Julian Kytasty who seamlessly wove together traditional Ukrain- ian songs with church gospel hymns. From a purely personal perspective, I am extremely pleased that I had the opportunity to see this play. As a child attending Ukrainian school I learned Taras Shevchenko’s name, a few facts about his life, and how to recite his poems in mon- otone on stage in front of dreadfully bored audi- ences consisting of parents and other members of the Ukrainian community who had heard it all be- fore.
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