In late September 2023 I stood on a tree-lined street in Odesa, Ukraine, talking to a young actor about the complexities of Ukrainian society. When I asked him about being a Russian-speaker in a country that was fighting the Russians, he explained that although he spoke Russian, he’d been born in Ukraine and considered himself 100 percent Ukrainian. “We are not like the Russians,” he said. “They are used to czars and oppression. We are Cossacks. Back in the day, if we faced oppression, we’d steal a horse and head off into the frontier.”
His statement confirmed what I’d sensed from a month of photographing performing artists in Ukraine: that Ukrainians are a free people. The Cossack is the equivalent of the American cowboy: a cultural myth that’s grown beyond historical reality. Whatever history they once shared with Russia was irrelevant. They’d mounted their horses and ridden into battle. They were not about to submit to anyone.
In opposition to Vladimir Putin’s invasion, Ukrainian performing artists are reasserting their national identity. When I photographed the Kyiv Symphony Orchestra, they were rehearsing the works of Stankovych and Barvinsky, Ukrainian composers who’d been banned during the Soviet era. This declaration of Ukrainian culture was considered so important that fighting-aged male symphony members were permitted to leave the country when the symphony took up residency in Germany.
Theater productions also shine a light on the struggles of the home front. From the catwalks above the stage, I photographed a performance of Green Corridors, a play that tells of four women who flee Ukraine at the start of the Russian invasion, only to return to their homeland. I could see that, although the opportunity to attend a play provided relief from the stress of life during wartime, the story being told was bringing some audience members to tears.
I saw no fear in the Ukrainian artists I encountered. Every performer, musician, and stagehand exhibited a calm and steadfast sense of purpose.
—Bill Scott
Destroyed Russian military vehicles and rockets on display in Kyiv.
Actor Natalka Kobizka uses a hair dryer to dry makeup prior to a performance of Green Corridors at the Theatre on Podil in Kyiv.
Dancers moments before taking the stage during a production of Countess Maritza at the Kyiv National Academic Theatre of Operetta.
Actor Kostiantyn Temlyak performing in Oedipus Rex at the Theatre on Podil.
Musician Oliinyk Yurii during a performance of Countess Maritza.
Actor Vladyslav Kostyka applies makeup before a performance of the one-man play The Double Bass at Theatre on Chainaya in Odesa.
Violinist Olena Deineka of the Kyiv Symphony Orchestra during a pause in rehearsal in Gera, Germany.
Svyatoslav Lytvynenko conducts the orchestra of the National Operetta of Ukraine during a performance of Countess Maritza.
Actor Maria Demenko performing in Green Corridors.
