In February 2022 Russia invaded Ukraine and in Mariupol the board of the vast Azovstal Steel Works decide to make 36 bomb shelters, a legacy of the Cold War, available for thousands of citizens and 3,000 retreating soldiers in which to hide. In early March the city was completely cut off and the steelworks, itself the size of a large town, surrounded by Russian forces who subjected it to continuous bombardment for twenty days. Those sheltering there not only had to endure the horrendously frightening noise of bombs raining down all the time, food and water also quickly ran out. Even after the civilians were permitted to leave, those in the military had to endure these conditions for another eighty days until ordered to surrender.
The battle for Azovstal Steelworks has become a grim legend and Inna Gonchora’s one person play is based on how several of its inmates survived, including one surviving member of a military band, The Trumpeter. He is also a composer, trying to write a symphony describing the sound he and others are enduring, but in the end concludes that war is just a cacophony and that his music has no part – the only music is much needed silence. The play was successfully staged in Kyiv in 2022, starring Peter Mironov, where it had a very long run. This English translation, by the resourceful John Farndon, now being staged at Finborough Theatre, stars Kristin Milward.
Milward is a hugely physical actor, exhaustingly so from the point of view of the audience, as she is rarely still, throwing herself around the stage as if her life depended on it. Although mainly portraying The Trumpeter himself, she also plays and/or describes several other Mariupol residents trapped in her bomb shelter hidden deep under the steel plant. She is highly successful in portraying their descent into almost madness. In fact, the most poignant moments in the play are those where we experience the total blackness that all had to endure, but only for one minute, and another one minute of virtual bombardment.
Vladimir Shcherban has directed this drama so that it is exhausting to watch and listen to – by the end we feel totally drained, having experienced, if only for sixty minutes, what those sheltering had to put up with for nearly three weeks. Hakan Hafizoglu’s lighting and Juliett Demoulin’s straightforward set design greatly aid the creation of atmosphere.
For all those interested in the effect the war in Ukraine is having on the people of Ukraine this play is a ‘must see’, even if it is at times not a pleasant experience, as is the intention.
Review by John Groves
Trapped beneath the Azovstal steelworks during the siege of Mariupol in Spring 2022, the battered remnants of Ukraine’s 36th Marine Brigade endure the never ending barrage of Russian heavy artillery.
The trumpeter, the only survivor of the Brigade’s brass band, shares the terrifying darkness with two compatriots. As the shells fall, threatening death at any second, the trumpeter desperately tries to find the harmony in the noise that will enable him to compose a symphony of war…
Inspired by true events, The Trumpeter bears witness to Russia’s devastating attack on Mariupol, and stands as a moving and timeless reflection on the role of art in war.
Performer – Kristin Milward
Writer – Inna Goncharova
Director – Vladimir Shcherban
Translator – John Farndon
THE TRUMPETER
Presented by Stone Wolf Productions in association with Neil McPherson for the Finborough Theatre
9 July to 3 August 2024
