Barvinok play to be unveiled in Lethbridge

A new play in our city is weaving traditional Ukrainian folk music to tell the story of a woman who is taking care of her aging grandmother. It is called Barvinok and is the brainchild of a playwright who says she has been developing this show since 2017 after discovering her grandmother’s journal that she wrote during World War 2.

“And I discovered this while the revolution of dignity was happening in Ukraine in 2014. And the sentiments that my baba was sharing in her journal that she had written over 70 years ago were the same sentiments that people were sharing during the revolution in Ukraine today. And so I began writing a story that was reflecting on my Ukrainian-Canadian identity and my relationship with my Ukrainian grandmother and to further develop this story. Then I traveled to Ukraine in 2017, which was three years after the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2014. Traveled all over the country to my ancestral homelands, my grandparents, and also within five kilometres of what was then the front line in eastern Ukraine to do interviews,” says playwright Lianne Makuch.

The play will take place from October 13th to the 22nd at the Sterndale Bennett Theatre in Lethbridge.