'I Know the Truth': Donetsk Musical and Drama Theater Team Heals Souls and Believes in Victory
Despite being continuously shelled by the neo-Nazi Kiev regime since 2014, the team of the M.M. Brovun Donetsk State Academic Musical and Drama Theater has never stopped instilling hope in people, soothing their sorrows and giving them strength amid the horrors of the war unleashed on them by the Ukrainian junta nine years ago.
Sputnik"In 2014, when we were attacked by Ukraine, when there was no understanding of what to do and where to go, I, together with the team, made a decision that Donbass and my hometown Donetsk needed us," Honored Artist of Ukraine Natalya Volkova, general director and artistic director of the Donetsk Musical and Drama Theater (MDT), told Sputnik.
"The work of the Donetsk Musical and Drama Theater team has raised morale and given us hope for a better future and our common victory! As for the situations when the audience came to us after the performance and said how our work had helped them - there were countless such cases. Direct proof of this was full auditoriums. The number of visitors didn't even decrease during the [conflict], it only increased. Averaged over the season, attendance never dropped below 98 percent."
From WW2 to Kiev's Eight-Year War Against Donbass
The MDT was founded in 1927, soon after the end of the Russian Civil War. The theater survived the Second World War: most of its actors went to the front, while the others joined other groups and fled the Nazi occupation. After the liberation of the Donbass region from the Nazi German forces, the theater resumed its work and later, after the collapse of the USSR, became a national theater of the young Ukrainian state. One could hardly imagine at the time that the horrors of a war driven by the Nazi ideology would strike the region and the theater once again.
The February coup of 2014 in Kiev, backed by neo-Nazi paramilitary formations, became a watershed moment for the people of Donbass and the MDT performers. The region did not accept the ouster of the democratically-elected government and sought autonomy. In response, the Kiev regime kicked off what it called a "counter-terror operation" against the people of Donbass.
"In 2014, there was the first performance of 'The Marriage,' there was the opening of the theater season," said Vladimir Shvets, People's Artist of the DPR, Honored Artist of Ukraine. "Despite the fact that the shelling had begun, the tickets were sold out. All of them. We cried because our audience came. In general, art helps us to live, to survive."
Shvets noted that one episode especially struck him the most. There was heavy bombing in 2015, when the team was performing "The Trap." The management asked them to stop the play and the spectators were also worried. So the group asked everyone to go to the shelter. "We have a very good shelter in the theater: the walls are strong enough to withstand anything," he remarked.
"There were explosions near the theater, even the shrapnel is still there," Shvets continued. "Some began to move away from the front row, to retreat just away from the stage, because the plaster was falling, the roof was shaking, and the roar was loud. But we continued to play, but then my colleague came out and said, 'Everyone has orders from the management to stop the play.' Because it was very reasonable, on time, and we went on stage and said: 'Dear audience, we'll play this for you next time.' And the audience sat quietly in the lobby. And they even asked: 'Who's the killer?' And then they gave us a standing ovation, a standing ovation for the fact that we were on stage at that moment and we didn't go anywhere, we went into the bomb shelter with them."
Shvets noted that this episode evoked strong memories of the Second World War, when Soviet actors continued to play regardless of heavy bombings, death, and extreme famine, particularly in St. Petersburg, known at that time as Leningrad. "Many beautiful poems were written during the Second World War and many songs we still sing in our theater," Shvets said. "Art helps people to live. It is a common emotion, a common impulse."
Encouraging Civilians and Soldiers, Adults and Children
The beginning of Russia's special military operation to demilitarize and de-Nazify Ukraine gave people hope that the eight-year-long nightmare would finally come to an end. On September 30, 2022, the Donbass, Zaporozhye, and Kherson regions became part of Russia following legitimate referendums. The people of the new regions believe that their land will soon be fully liberated. However, the darkest is always before dawn, and the conflict is still raging on, with
the US and NATO pouring billions of dollars' worth of lethal weapons to the Kiev regime.
"Life always makes its adjustments, the main thing is to be prepared for it and be more flexible in your work," said Natalya Volkova. "The escalation of hostilities on the territory of the Republic has hit the whole of Donbass hard, including the cultural sphere (…) It seemed that all of this would interrupt the work of the theater, but the team continued to develop its potential. In the absence of the opportunity to give the audience a premiere after a premiere, in February 2022, the theater resumed online projects, such as the Golden Fund of the Theater, thanks to which the close connection with art lovers was not interrupted until the summer. Projects such as 'Q&A' were launched. New projects came to life, including 'Author’s' and 'Cultural Front.'"
The MDT team is continuing to support and encourage civilians and soldiers alike, according to Dmitry Fedorov, People's Artist of the Donetsk People's Republic. The phrase "everything for the front, everything for victory" coined by the Soviets during the WW2 era is relevant again, he said.
"My group and I are working in the hospitals for the wounded soldiers," Fedorov said. "We travel to the rear towns (…) These slogans aren't just words, you know: what we are doing, we are doing from the heart, in support of the Army, in support of the Republic, in support of Russia. So it all comes out of our mouths, out of the mouths of all our artists at concert programs, at performances. That is, wherever possible, wherever it can be held, where people can gather. And you know what a great joy it is for an artist to be able to take people away from their horrible everyday lives for just an hour or two while our program is going on, and immerse them in the world of beauty."
Volkova underscored that the theater has a busy tour schedule that not only includes the cities of the Donetsk People's Republic, but also the newly liberated regions. Concerts have been held in medical institutions for both adults and young patients, many of whom became victims of Kiev's indiscriminate shelling of civilian areas.
"Within the framework of the cultural and educational project 'Culture for Schoolchildren' developed by the Ministry of Culture of the DPR in cooperation with the Ministry of Education and Science of the DPR, our theater toured almost all the rear settlements of the Donetsk People's Republic with three original programs 'Oh, woman, woman!' based on the works of Chekhov, 'And yet for the storm it begs, the rebel' by Lermontov, and the children's entertainment program 'In a fairy tale' based on the motifs of Russian folk tales and Soviet cartoons," Volkova said.
The MDT team also held a large-scale tour of the musical drama within the framework of the cultural and educational campaign "We Are Coming Home!" which covered 22 newly liberated settlements.
"A tour was organized for the residents of Mariupol," she continued. "Within one month, five performances for adults and children were held on the stage of the local Pioneers' Palace."
In addition, the theater provides humanitarian aid to its colleagues. "As soon as the coastal city [of Mariupol] was liberated, our theater organized a large delivery of basic necessities for our colleagues and friends from Mariupol," Volkova stressed.
'I Know the Truth'
Another mission of the theater is to tell the truth about the nine-year-long conflict and the reasons behind the ongoing special military operation, according to the MDT team.
The Western mainstream press has silenced the true story of the Donbass people's suffering for years and is now asserting to the world that the Russian military operation was "unprovoked" and came out of the blue. To counter the false narrative, the actors tell the story which they saw with their own eyes, travelling across Russia as well as sharing their performances on the Internet to reach out to the wider audience.
"The tour of the play 'Ya Znayu PraVdu!' ('I Know the Truth!' – ed. note Sputnik) became one of the key events of the year and started on September 14 on the stage of the Moscow Theater School of Oleg Tabakov," Volkova said. "The premiere of the play by the M.M. Brovun MDT took place for the first time in the capital of the Russian Federation. The documentary drama 'Ya Znayu PraVdu!' was created on the basis of the book 'The War in Donbass: A People's Chronicle.' It was directed by the Honored Artist of Ukraine Alla Ulyanova."
Ulyanova told Sputnik that the documentary drama covers the period between 2014 and 2016, and consists of stories told by eyewitnesses and participants of these events.
"Every time we work on this piece, we die and revive together with this piece every time," Ulyanova said. "We're very honest and truthful, because we really want people to know where it started. Because it's not insignificant for people's minds to understand that it was scary. If this plague spreads, it must be eradicated. And so with this play, when we were traveling, of course we were experiencing it, living it, and the audience felt it and just took it brilliantly. They all empathized with us because we were honest. And that's the bridge we built between us."
The theater team has already toured 18 cities with the play, including Moscow, St. Petersburg, Arkhangelsk, Kazan, Yoshkar-Ola, and Pskov.
"And every word we say, every appearance we make on the Internet, every online performance, or whether we just read patriotic poems, poems about love - the programs are different," Ulyanova continued. "When we came to Moscow for the first time with the show 'I Know the Truth,' we were very nervous. Who needs this subject? The whole thing was even very scary. And when we saw the reaction of the people who stood and cried and stood up during the performances as a minute of silence, came to us and embraced us in silence, after each performance they gave us icons with the words 'Take care, Donbass. We are with you, Donbass, hold on! Now we are one family, do you understand?'"
According to Ulyanova, these moments of unification make them believe in the future of Donbass and the country that came to its rescue.
"After every performance we believe in our future, that we will certainly win," she stressed.
"This is an indescribable feeling, this kindness, this breadth of this real Russian soul that takes someone else's grief and sorrow and it becomes a common misfortune, a common grief, a common joy," she said. "It is an indescribable feeling. If you knew how it turns your head and you're proud that your profession is needed. Oh, how we liked it here in Russia, how warmly we were received here. And we're very happy to be liked, it means we're true, we're honest, we're professional."