A collaboration between York International Shakespeare Festival and the National Theatre of Ivano-Frankivsk (Ukraine)
Saturday April 20, 2:00 pm and 7:30pm
York St John University Creative Centre Auditorium
At a meeting in Gdansk in August 2023, the Artistic and General Director of the National Theatre in Ivano Frankivsk – Rostislav Derzhypilskyi – announced that in 2024, his theatre would host a first International Shakespeare Festival.
The arrival of any new festival to the Shakespeare world is wonderful – this one is a miracle. To start a festival in a time of war is defiant and heroic and shows the importance of our culture at the heart of a national identity.
We decided that to celebrate this new festival, we should make a collaborative project with the theatre in Ivano Frinkivsk – here at our festival in York – to demonstrate our support and solidarity with them.
And this is it.
From the outset, it was planned as a fairly free form collaboration – with both partners bringing material to share, with a focus on Shakespeare of course, and most importantly a chance for two communities – linked by Shakespeare – to meet and come together
Two wonderful actors from the Ivano Franko company, Ivan Blindar and Mariia Stopnyk are joining us in York for a week of rehearsals. We have invited York based actors to come and participate along with students from York St John University, and most importantly members of the Ukrainian community here in the city and region.
There will be Shakespeare in English and Ukrainian
There will be new writing from the UK, and from Ukraine.
There will be music
There will be laughter and reflection.
It may have a title! Eventually.
And there will be you – the audience. Come and celebrate with us – the power of theatre, the power of Shakespeare.
The performance will last around 75 minutes – but remember, we haven’t made it yet and we might have a lot to say!
It may be sad at times, but we will make sure that it will be suitable for all audiences
We will have subtitles in English when they are needed.
Tickets £15 full price £5 concessions – bookings through the link below
We want to make it possible for as many members of the community to come to festival performances, so please consider buying a Pass it On Ticket which we can offer to community members who may not otherwise be able to attend.