In war-weary Kyiv, wounded Ukrainian veterans turn epic poetry into living testimony

"Sitting in a circle the day before opening night, Ukrainian war veterans and drama students took turns reading their lines from a script that traveled centuries to reach them. At the center was Olha Semioshkina, directing the group through her adaptation of Eneida by Ivan Kotliarevskyi an 18th-century Ukrainian reimagining of Virgil's Aeneid. This production, though, had a modern-day message about resilience in the face of the war that's nearing its fourth year since Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine."

"The actors men and women in their 20s to 60s included Ukrainian military veterans who had returned from the front with amputations, severe burns and sight loss. Others had endured war on the homefront. Many had never set foot on a stage before this play. The production was created by Theater of Veterans, an organization founded by members of Ukraine's Territorial Defense Forces that provides theatrical training and stage opportunities for former service members as part of their reintegration and recovery."

"We knew the guys had just come back from rehabilitation, and we had to start from the very beginning, Semioshkina said. We spent about four months simply learning to communicate, to fall, to group, to roll, to get together, she said. Then we began developing the body, taking off prosthetics and learning to exist without them. The 51-year-old director's concept was simple: Every man on stage is Aeneas. Every woman on stage is Dido."

Ukrainian war veterans and drama students rehearsed an adaptation of Eneida directed by Olha Semioshkina, blending an 18th-century reimagining of Virgil's Aeneid with contemporary wartime experience. The cast included men and women in their 20s to 60s, including military veterans who returned from the front with amputations, severe burns and sight loss, and others who endured war on the homefront. Theater of Veterans created the production to provide theatrical training and stage opportunities for former service members as part of reintegration and recovery. Preparation lasted more than a year, with months spent rebuilding basic movement, communication and life skills, removing prosthetics and learning to exist without them. The staging casts every man as Aeneas and every woman as Dido, presenting Aeneas with prosthetic limbs and scars from the 2022 Russian invasion.

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