The play ‘The Hague’ by Ukrainian playwright Sasha Denisova, written soon after the beginning of the war, is a grotesque, funny and sinister “phantasmagoria” based on real events and people related to the Russian war in Ukraine.
‘The Hague’ sets up an imaginary trial at the Hague tribunal against the war crimes of Putin and his inner circle of close collaborators, enacted in the fantasies of a little girl, who keeps a diary of her horrifying everyday life in Ukraine.
The text weaves together various facets of the political and ideological realities of the Russian Federation together with fragments of real war stories, and documentary elements from family tragedies, arranged in a non-linear story, creating the image of the war in the girl’s cognitive and emotional world.
Cast: Victoria Koblenko, Alesia Adrushevska, Oksana Borbat, Bram Gerrits, Manja Topper, Benjamin Moen, Erik van Welzen, Oleksandra Bilousova, Aleksej Ovsiannikov, Milena Kompaniiets, Artem Smotrych
Director: Yasha Gudzenko
Live contrabass sound: Arkadi Romansky
About United Ukrainian Theatre
United Ukrainian Theatre – it is a theatrical group which was created by the Ukrainian professional director Yasha Gudzenko and three professional actresses Alesia Andrushevska, Oksana Borbat and Oleksandra Bilousova. All these theatre makers knew each other before 2022 and worked together in Ukrainian theaters. In 2023 Yasha Gudzenko cooperated with De Balie and Frascati for Endless February, a series of performative readings of Ukrainian plays that were written after February 2022.
About Sasha Denisova
Sasha Denisova is a Ukrainian playwright and director. She taught stage direction at The Meyerhold Theatre Centre, lectured at the Moscow Art Theatre School, and led the auteur and documentary theatre studio “Studio-OFF”. In 2010, after completing training at the British Royal Court Theater (majoring in Documentary Theater,) Denisova created a troupe of like-minded actors practising the principles of experimental theatre. She fled Russia early in the war and is now living in USA.
When Russia bombed Kyiv, I thought about what would give hope to me and those who fled the war. A trial of Putin and his government was the biggest expectation.
Sasha Denisova (playwright)
This programma is made possible by Steunfonds Oekrainse makers 2024 & V-fonds.
More in De Balie
Abundant in resources and a vital trade route, the region is now becoming a potential battleground. How can we ensure peace and security?
De nalatenschap van de aidsepidemie
Aan het begin van de Queer & Pride week organiseert De Balie een avondvullend programma over het nalatenschap van de aidsepidemie. Wat voor invloed heeft deze nalatenschap op het seksleven van de huidige generatie queermannen?
