Mothermotherland is a devised performance that explores motherhood, motherland, and Ukrainian and American experience through the lens of Mykola Khyvylovy’s autobiographical short story “I Am (a Romantic)”. Written in 1924, the short story follows I, the head of the secret police (the Cheka), who must decide, with the help of his comrades: Dr. Tahabat, Andrusha, and the degenerate Sentinel, whether or not to execute his own mother to protect his idea of a commune beyond the hills. This performance was developed through a co-writing process by members of Slovo. Theater Group. The performance was devised in the styles of Les Kurbas (theatre of movement and gestus), Jacques Lecoq (physical theatre), and post-documentary theatre. In this piece, there are multiple realities existing and overlapping with one another; there are the actors and their personal experiences, the actors playing themselves and their personal stories, there are the characters of “I am (a Romantic)”, and there is Mykola Khyvylovy.
New York City, NY; NYC