MARIUPOL DRAMA: COMMEMORATIVE PRACTICES, TESTIMONY, IDENTITY, THEATRICAL CODE
Authors:   Borys Grinchenko Kyiv University, Bondareva O. 
Published: April 2024

The article examines the dramatic work "Mariupol Drama", created by Transcarpathian playwright Oleksandr Gavrosh based on interviews with actors Igor Kitrysh, Olena Bila, Dmytro Murantsev, Vira Lebedynska, who survived the bombing of the theater building in Mariupol and are now reviving the Ukrainian Mariupol Theater in Uzhhorod. It was found that the play was not intended to be performed on the stages of other theaters by other professional actors, so it is not printed and is not included in open electronic anthologies of modern dramatic works about the war. This is one of the first attempts to dramaturgically and theatrically memorize the tragedy of the Mariupol Theater as a Russian crime against humanity and as a war crime. Therefore, it is logical to apply the optics of memory studies to the interpretation of this work and place the "Mariupol drama" in the context of other visual artefacts of the marker identification of the memorial remembrance about the Mariupol drama theater (radio film-podcast "Let's meet at the Drama", investigative film "Russian Airstrike on the Mariupol Drama Theater, Part 1. City in the Theater", 3-D tour of the Mariupol Drama Theater, video interviews with eyewitnesses from various human rights groups) and about the tragedy of Mariupol in general (documentaries "Mariupol. Unlost hope", "Mariupol... out of the zone", "Mariupol. Chronicles of Hell", "We stepped over corpses", "Mariupol. Human stories", "20 days in Mariupol", "Mariupol 2"). It was established that the leading intentions of the "Mariupol Drama" correspond to a large array of documentary and commemorative sources, many of which appeared before the anniversary of the tragedy of the Mariupol Theater. It was found out that the playwright and actors managed to fully implement several discourses very important for the Ukrainian collective memory in a small dramatic work: Mariupol, which resisted the aggressor while being completely surrounded; wars as unprocessed collective traumas and cancellation of narratives imposed by Russian propaganda; of the new collective Ukrainian identity, which is formed in this war; after all, the theater as a special mystical space. Unlike the story about the building of the theater, from which only a ruined facade remains, the story of the human community inside this building is endowed with a colossal vitalistic potential, largely connected with how a new collective Ukrainian identity emerges in the crucible of war in a former pro-Russian city. Since crimes against humanity, as well as war crimes, do not have a statute of limitations, and their fixation and research are very important for further work with collective memory and the traumatic past, the documentary play "Mariupol Drama" is a valuable artistic material for modern Ukrainian studies of memory, which are quickly included in the development of the events of the new phase of the Russian-Ukrainian war, offer relevant angles of their interpretations, supported by eyewitness accounts and documentary commemorative practices. Key words: war, theater, identity, memory, collective trauma, coming of age of a nation, commemoration.