At Chernihiv Theatre in Ukraine, women are now performing traditionally male roles after a local theater adapted to the war. Four of the theatre’s male actors and five stage employees have volunteered to join the army since Russia invaded in 2022. Just two men are left on stage, while most of the on-stage and backstage work is performed by women.
“We were rehearsing Shakespeare’s ‘King Lear’ when suddenly our men were sent to the front,” said director Roman Pokrovskyi, 52. “We had only the female half of the troupe remaining. So we thought, ‘Well, if men played women in Shakespeare’s day, why not try it?'”
A New Take on a Historic Play
The group has refurbished its repertoire, one entry being “Hetman,” an adaptation about Ivan Mazepa, 17th-century leader of the Cossacks, who stood in opposition to Russian rule and found an alliance in Sweden. Ukraine’s battle today for self-rulership means that Mazepa’s narrative is every bit as resonant.
Actress Ruslana Ostapko, 43, performs several male roles, even wearing a painted mustache for realism. But for Ostapko and her fellow actors, the work is emotionally charged. “This is pain, the pain of the whole nation, our pain,” she said, thinking about friends who are fighting at the front.
Theater as a Center for Resistance
Beyond performances, the theater has become a hub for wartime efforts. Staff—including cloakroom attendants, cashiers, and cafeteria workers—spend their days weaving camouflage nets for soldiers before welcoming audiences at night. The team also raises funds to supply their deployed colleagues with essential equipment.
Some of them will never come back. Actor Kostiantyn Slobodeniuk is missing, and sound engineer Vyacheslav Shevtsov was killed during a counteroffensive in Kursk last August. Oleksii Bysh, 52, one of the last male actors left, remembers their absence with a tinge of sadness.
Saving Culture In The Face Of Destruction
Chernihiv, situated close to Russia and Belarus, is still held by Ukraine but has been brutally destroyed. Oksana Tunik-Fryz, aged 46, chairman of the Chernihiv Regional Administration Arts and Culture Council, highlighted the danger to Ukrainian cultural identity. “The enemy is killing us from inside us by killing our culture,” she explained. “Killing one Ukrainian is like killing one man. But to destroy our culture is to kill our future.
Despite constant Russian bombardments, shows are being performed. In advance of each performance, an announcement makes clear that air raid alerts can stop the performance. Suggestively, the message was left by Slobodeniuk, who is currently missing. When alarms ring out, patrons take cover before reopening the show.
United in the Face of War
Though Russian airstrikes by drones still pose a legitimate threat, the war has deepened the people, theater director Ihor Tykhomyrov said. “IT brings them together,” he said.
Observing their perseverance, Bysh referenced Ukrainian film director Oleksandr Dovzhenko:
“We are a small theatre. But, as Dovzhenko said, you are only little from far. Close up, you are great.