Natal’ya Vorozhbyt (Playwright, Take The Rubbish Out, Sasha) is a Ukrainian playwright and a leader in the resurgence of Ukrainian national drama in the 21st century. Her first major play, Galka Motalko, had success shortly after she graduated from the Gorky Literature Institute (Moscow) in 2000. The Grain Store, a historical work about the Holodomor, the state-induced famine in Ukraine in the 1930s, was produced by the Royal Shakespeare Company in London in 2009. Vorozhbyt took part in the Euromaidan protests in Kyiv in 2013 and 2014 and the theme of the ensuing war with Russia has coloured her work since. In 2015 she co-founded the Theater of Displaced People with Georg Genoux, offering an opportunity for refugees from the Donbass region to tell their stories in a formal, theatrical context. Her plays include Bad Roads (2017) which was staged at the Royal Court Theatre, and, as a film directed by the author, was Ukraine’s official Oscar selection in 2022. She also wrote the screenplay for Cyborgs (2017), a film about the defence of an airport in Donetsk where Ukrainian soldiers fought separatists for 242 days. Vorozhbyt writes in Ukrainian and Russian. Take The Rubbish Out, Sasha, received its UK premiere as part of A Play, A Pie and A Pint: International Plays from Ukraine and Russia, curated by Nicola McCartney, in association with National Theatre of Scotland and the University of Edinburgh at Òran Mór, Glasgow, and the Traverse Theatre, Edinburgh, in 2015.

Neda Nezhdana (Playwright, Pussycat in Memory of Darkness) is one of Ukraine’s leading playwrights, theatremakers, poets and translators, she is the author of more than two dozen original plays, including The Suicide of Loneliness and When the Rain Returns, plus eight adaptations and two collections of poetry. Born in Kramatorsk in the Donetsk region, she lives in Kyiv. She has led the department of dramatic projects in Les Kurbas National Centre for Theatre Arts for fifteen years, founded the Kyiv independent theatre MIST and is Chairman of the Confederation of Playwrights of Ukraine. Her plays such as Pussycat in Memory of Darkness, He Opens the Door, and Lost In the Fog have become potent symbols of Ukraine’s battle for independent existence. One of her most celebrated plays is the culture-defining semi documentary drama Maidan Inferno about the pivotal events of the Maidan of 2014. It has been performed in France as well as across Ukraine. Her work has been seen in most cities in Ukraine, and in Belarus, Poland, Serbia, Macedonia, Kosovo, Croatia, Russia, Georgia, Armenia, Lithuania, Estonia, South Africa, Kyrgyzstan, Germany, France, Turkey, Portugal, Austria, Sweden, the USA, Canada, the UK, Ireland, Romania, Australia and Iraq. Her play Ovetka@ua received its wartime premieres in Uzhhorod and Poltava in 2022, and is currently available to view for free on the Finborough Theatre’s YouTube channel. She has recently completed The Closed Sky, an epic drama based on four women’s true stories from the Russian attacks on Mariupol in spring 2022.

Sasha Dugdale (Translator, Take The Rubbish Out, Sasha) is a poet, translator and former editor of the magazine Modern Poetry in Translation. She is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and writer-in-residence at St John’s College, Cambridge. In the 1990s, she worked for the British Council in Russia, where she set up the Russian New Writing Project with the Royal Court Theatre. She has translated new plays for the Royal Court Theatre, the Royal Shakespeare Company and other theatre companies in the UK and US. These include the works of Vasily Sigarev, the Presnyakov Brothers and Natalya Vorozhbit. Her translation of Plasticine by Vasily Sigarev was the non-English play to win its author an Evening Standard Most Promising Playwright Award. She has translated Chekhov’s Cherry Orchard and Three Sisters for BBC Radio productions, and made radio programmes about John Keats, Russian poetry and propaganda, and more recently about Russian dissidents and the war in Ukraine. Dugdale has published many translations of Russian poetry. Birdsong on the Seabed (Bloodaxe) by Elena Shvarts, was a Poetry Book Society choice and shortlisted for the Popescu and Academica Rossica Translation Awards. War of the Beasts and the Animals (Bloodaxe) by Maria Stepanova won a PEN Translates Award and was a Poetry Book Society Choice. Her translation of In Memory of Memory, a prose work by Maria Stepanova (Fitzcarraldo Editions), was shortlisted for the International Booker Prize, the James Tait Black Prize and was longlisted for the National Book Awards in the USA and the Baillie Gifford Prize. She has published five collections of poetry with Carcanet. Her monologue-poem ‘Joy’ won the 2016 Forward Prize for Best Single Poem, and her fifth collection Deformations was shortlisted for the T. S. Eliot and Derek Walcott Prizes. Deformations was an Observer Book of the Year for 2020. In 2017, Dugdale received a Cholmondeley Award for her poetry.

John Farndon is a writer, poet, playwright and songwriter living in London, and a translator of literature from Eurasia, including many plays for the Worldwide Ukrainian Play Readings series. He has written over a thousand books on science, nature and other topics, translated into most languages, and include many international best-sellers. He has been shortlisted five times for the Young People’s Science Book Prize. His plays include Anya (Donmar Warehouse), High Risk Zone (Almeida Theatre), The Naked Guest (Pleasance Edinburgh), Lope de Vega’s verse play Dog in a Manger (Cockpit Theatre) and an adaptation of Mozart’s Il Seraglio (Plymouth Theatre Royal, Salisbury Playhouse and Riverside Studios, London). His translations of the poetry of Lidia Grigorieva were nominated for five major awards, including the Griffin. He was joint winner of the 2019 EBRD Literature Prize for translating the poetry in Uzbek writer Hamid Ismailov’s The Devil’s Dance, and finalist for the 2020 US PEN Translation Award for his translation of Kazakh writer Rollan Seysenbaev’s The Dead Wander in the Desert. He has also translated the lyrics of Vladimir Vysotsky. A large bilingual collection of his own poetry is currently being published in Uzbek and English. He ran the Arc venue at the Edinburgh Fringe and also the Cauldron­­­ series of poetry and music events. He was a Royal Literary Fellow at Anglia Ruskin University, Cambridge, and City and Guilds in London and was chairman of the Eurasian Creative Guild 2019-2021. He is also a judge for New Plays, Most Promising New Playwrights, Production and Performance Pieces for the OffWestEnd Theatre Awards. Recently, his translations of Ukrainian plays have been presented in readings all over the world, including world premieres of two of his translations Polina Pologonceva’s Save the Light and Andriy Bondarenko’s Fox Dark as Light Night opened recently at Barons Court Theatre in London, and Neda Nezhdana’s He Who Opens the Door will open at A Play, A Pie and A Pint at Òran Mór, Glasgow, in August.

www.johnfarndon.com

Director Svetlana Dimcovic (Director, Take The Rubbish Out, Sasha) trained at the University of Birmingham, the National Theatre Studio, the Orange Tree Theatre and the Royal Shakespeare Company. She is the Artistic Director of Merchant Culture, Connecting Art with Digital Innovation. She was Associate Director at the Bush Theatre, Baltic and Eastern European Programme (2009-2010), Associate Director of the Gate Theatre (2003-2005), Associate Director of the Caird Company (2002-2005) and a Trainee Director at the Orange Tree Theatre, Richmond (2001-2002). Her new writing work includes workshops for young playwrights and numerous translations for: Royal Court Theatre; Royal Shakespeare Company; BBC Radio; West Yorkshire Playhouse; Caird Company; Sterijino Pozorje Festival, Belgrade; Belgrade International Theatre Festival; Atelje 212, Belgrade; and Martovski Film Festival, Belgrade. Previous productions at the Finborough Theatre includes The Potting Shed by Graham Greene. Previous productions include Absent (Migrants in Theatre, The Young Vic), In the Bear’s Jaws (Merchant Culture, Belgrade International Theatre Festival), And the Band Keeps Marching On (Barbican Theatre, Bush Theatre and Sage Gateshead for Sky Arts), F****ed.com (Merchant Culture, Traverse Theatre), Swimming Pool (Avignon Theatre Festival), Belfast Girls (National Famine Commemoration, Drogheda Arts Centre, Ireland), The Truth Teller (Kings Head Theatre), The Entertainer (Riverside Studios), Sorry (Theatre in the Mill, Bradford), Belfast Girls (National Theatre Studio, London), Memory Play (Tiata Fahodzi, Africa Centre), Mr Punch (Swan Theatre, Worcester), Belfast Girls (Kings Head Theatre), Oasis (Scene Nationale de la Guadeloupe), Nine Night and 45 Minutes from Here (Bush Theatre, Square Chapel Halifax and Theatre in the Mill, Bradford), The God of Hell (Belgrade, Serbia), The Outside (Orange Tree Theatre, Richmond), Lithuanian Festival (Southwark Playhouse), Zuva Crumbling (Lyric Hammersmith), The Professional (Citizens Theatre, Glasgow), Mushroom Pickers (Southwark Playhouse), Writer’s Generation (Arts Printing House, Vilnius, Lithuania), The Broken Heel (Riverside Studios) and A Kind of Alaska (Orange Tree Theatre).

Polly Creed (Director, Pussycat in Memory of Darkness) is a theatre director, playwright, and filmmaker. She recently directed The Straw Chair at the Finborough Theatre. Polly is a founder of Power Play, a production company that tells women's stories of injustice on stage and on screen. Power Play's debut site-specific showcase at the Edinburgh Fringe 2018 won a Fringe First for Emma Dennis-Edwards’ play, Funeral Flowers. Polly’s directorial debut, Next Time received an ‘Outstanding Show’ accolade at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival. Polly is also writer of Humane, shortlisted for the Charlie Hartill Award and published by Aurora Metro Books. It has also been adapted into an audio drama. The play version will have a stage run at The Pleasance in November 2021. Her play, The Empty Chair, was shortlisted for a Sit Up Award and won Best New Writing at LSDF 2018.  In 2016-2020, she ran a successful petition and media campaign, calling for Harvey Weinstein to be stripped of his honorary CBE.

Co-Producer Handsome Dog Productions has worked in the UK and internationally in the USA, Ireland, France, Italy, Spain, Poland, Russia and Ukraine, most recently in Kyiv in August 2021. Theatre includes the transfer of the Finborough Theatre production of Cornelius by J. B. Priestley (59E59 Theaters, New York City), Forest by Masterskaya Brusnikina (Assembly Rooms, Edinburgh Fringe Festival),108 (Masterskaya Theatre, Moscow), and the Dublin premiere of St. Nicholas by Conor McPherson (Temple Bar Art Gallery, Dublin). Documentary films include Untitled - Chernobyl Project, The Royal Court: The Only Club I’d Ever Be A Member Of!, Don’t Exaggerate! , Inheritance for the Environmental Awareness International Uranium Film Festival, War Requiem for the 70th Anniversary of Hiroshima and Nagasaki for the Stop the War Coalition and CND, Royal Babylon: Criminal Record of the British Monarchy,  Kozmos for the 50th anniversary of man’s first flight to Space for the British Embassy, Moscow, in association with the British Council, and (in association with Hopscotch Films),The Story of Film by Mark Cousins - The Work of Tarkovsky Round Table Discussion – Filmmakers Behind Solaris.

"Svetlana Dimcovic's revival builds up a sense of mounting pressure." Michael Billington, The Guardian
"This fascinating rarity...a compelling spiritual detective story...given a gripping, lucid revival by Svetlana Dimcovic." Paul Taylor, Independent
"Svetlana Dimcovic's production is both tactful and authentic. As James, Paul Cawley delivers a performance that blends feverish frustration and genuine agony." Henry Hitchings, Evening Standard
"Greene's script crackles with mordant wit, and Svetlana Dimcovic's revival is propulsive, engrossing and boldly characterised." Andrzej Lukowski, Timeout
"Svetlana Dimcovic's fine production, nicely framed in a series of quiet 1950s interiors, keeps the tension well and makes gripping work of the big revelation scene." Sarah Hemming, Financial Times

★★★★ Four Stars “Hard-edged absurdist humour…The voice of human bewilderment and resilience in the face of massive political and economic change is unmistakable, and instantly recognisable.” Joyce McMillan, The Scotsman
“A subtle and multi-layered meditation on loss, both of family and of country…for a country that not long ago regained its identity but now faces the prospect of once again being subsumed into the Soviet Union – permeates the play from start to finish… I left the theatre touched more deeply than I have been in a long time.” East Coast FM
“A strange and beautiful piece of theatre… Natalia Vorozhbyt's script (translated by Sasha Dugdale) is excellent…The way this domestic tale interacts with its investigation of Ukraine's political troubles is an excellent example of this.” Grace Knight, Broadway Baby

3 ★★★★★ five star reviews
8 ★★★★ four star reviews
London Pub Theatres Standing Ovation Award nomination
OffWestEnd Award nomination for Costume Design
OffWestEnd Award nomination for Performance Ensemble
“A cracking production at the Finborough, intense, moving and thought-provoking.” David Weir, London Pub Theatres
“This fascinating play is well-directed by Polly Creed and has some top-notch performances.” Jim Cooke, London Living Large
“Polly Creed’s direction is assured.” Louise Penn, LouReviews
“Sensitively explored by director Polly Creed.” Jenny Booth, Time and Leisure

★★★★★ Five Stars, The Stage
★★★★★ Five Stars, theatreCat for Pussycat in Memory of Darkness
★★★★ Four Stars, The Guardian
★★★★ Four Stars, West End Evenings
★★★★ Four Stars, theatreCat for Take The Rubbish Out, Sasha
★★★★ Four Stars, Jewish Renaissance
★★★★ Four Stars, ajhlovestheatre for Pussycat in Memory of Darkness 

“The tiny but enterprising above-a-pub Finborough theatre deserves a bouquet of blue and yellow flowers for nimbly premiering, just over five months into the Russian invasion of Ukraine, two plays from the threatened nation.” Mark Lawson, The Guardian

“Honour to the Finborough…for crowning its season of readings with these two plays. Bigger theatres have done a lot less.” Libby Purves, theatreCat

“Huge kudos to the Finborough…for showcasing the very culture that Vladimir Putin wants to destroy.” Nick Curtis, Evening Standard

“Blisteringly truthful and deeply moving.” Alun Hood, ajhlovestheatre

“Emotive and searing.” Mariam Mathew, London Pub Theatres.

“I’m extremely grateful to Finborough Theatre for making this event happen so quickly (by theatre standards) and supporting the highlighting of Ukrainian stories on the stage.” Zuzanna Chmielewska, West End Evenings

“The Finborough is to be lauded for making these plays available.” Sophia Moss, The Upcoming

“Timely, enterprising, emotionally shattering, politically shaming.” Libby Purves, theatreCat

“Nothing but praise should be lavished on the Finborough Theatre ... Yet again it leads where others follow and its choice of work is both bold and brave.” Close-Up Culture

“Confrontational, sometimes shocking and distressing, but completely compulsive.” Alun Hood, ajhlovestheatre

“A prescient and very welcome evening of plays.” Chris Lilly, London Pub Theatres

“The immediacy of the production is vital.” Sophia Moss, The Upcoming

“With Russia’s invasion of Ukraine now past the six-month mark, most in the UK are now numb to daily headlines of atrocities. It is timely, then, for the Finborough Theatre to stage this extraordinary double bill of Ukrainian plays, which remind us of what is at stake in the conflict.” Nick Ferris, The Stage

“The tiny Finborough room-above-a-pub theatre has given a platform to ‘Voices from Ukraine’ on stage and online: a noble and generous move in solidarity with the traumatised people of Ukraine.” Vera Liber, British Theatre Guide

“The plays are of the moment, thought-provoking and in places tear- inducing – leaving the audience with a thunderous message ringing in their ears.” Close-Up Culture

“Two Ukrainian Plays is part of the Worldwide Ukrainian Play Readings series, which presents work from contemporary Ukrainian playwrights to an English-speaking audience. As well as this double bill performance, Finborough Theatre is also running #VoicesfromUkraine, an online series of translated work.” Sophia Moss, The Upcoming

“A dark, surreal tragicomedy and a stark, heartbreaking monologue in a double bill by two women playwrights digs deep into the human situation of individuals caught up in the conflict in Ukraine.” Judi Herman, Jewish Renaissance

“These two short Ukrainian dramas from 2014, an absurdist black comedy and a harrowing monologue, couldn’t be more stylistically different.” Nick Curtis, Evening Standard

“There must also be a case for a bigger, richer theatre hosting a double bill that, for those unable to see it, also makes a revealing and affecting read in the paperback play-text, Voices from Ukraine: Two Plays.” Mark Lawson, The Guardian

“Go and see the plays if you can – and show your support for freedom above totalitarianism.” Close-Up Culture

“A beguiling magical-realist quality to Natal’ya Vorozhbit’s writing.” Nick Ferris, The Stage

“Vorozhbit’s mix of naturalism and the supernatural, comedy and tragedy, works well.” Mark Lawson, The Guardian

“Take The Rubbish Out Sasha, by Natal’ya Vorozhbit, is a sublime drama.” Adam Bloodworth, City A.M.

“As an audience member, you feel as if you’re sitting in the kitchen with your mom and going through it yourself.” Zuzanna Chmielewska, West End Evenings

“Neda Nezhdana’s tremendous monologue.” John Cutler, The Reviews Hub

“Pussycat In Memory Of Darkness, translated with edgy flair by John Farndon, is utterly riveting.” Alun Hood, ajhlovestheatre

“Pussycat in Memory of Darkness delivers multiple emotional punches.” Zuzanna Chmielewska, West End Evenings

“Unbearably emotive.” Mark Lawson, The Guardian

“A long monologue can be hard going. This was not:  it is stunningly done.” Libby Purves, theatreCat

“It’s a one-actress show, which, thanks to brilliant delivery, avoids the usual monologue monotony or flatness.” Zuzanna Chmielewska, West End Evenings

“In both plays the translations are excellent.” Libby Purves, theatreCat

“Impressive writing and acting.” Gary Naylor, Broadway World

“This is an acting masterclass.” Alun Hood, ajhlovestheatre.

“A startling, arresting, solid figure in Alan Cox.” Libby Purves, theatreCat

“Amanda Ryan really carries this play as the family’s matriarch.” Nick Ferris, The Stage

“Amanda Ryan anchors Sasha Dugdale's translation as the coping matriarch.” Gary Naylor, Broadway World

“An excellent Amanda Ryan.” John Cutler, The Reviews Hub

“Ryan is powerful as Katya.” Close-Up Culture

“Amanda Ryan is particularly compelling.” Adam Bloodworth, City A.M.

“The chemistry of the leads is intoxicating.” Nick Ferris, The Stage

“All three actors are strong.” Nick Ferris, The Stage

“Issy Knowles as Oksana and Amanda Ryan as Katja are fantastic.” Zuzanna Chmielewska, West End Evenings

“An extraordinary central performance.” Nick Ferris, The Stage

“Kristen Milward delivers this cri-de-coeur in a powerhouse performance.” Gary Naylor, Broadway World

“Milward is astonishing.” Alun Hood, ajhlovestheatre

“Milward brings an impressive amount of energy and emotional range.” Sophia Moss, The Upcoming

“Kristin Milward gives a dynamo of a performance.” John Cutler, The Reviews Hub

“Searingly delivered by Kristin Milward.” Mark Lawson, The Guardian

“Kristin Milward dominates the stage from the moment she steps on it.” Mariam Mathew, London Pub Theatres

“Milward layers her interpretation with a complex knot of emotion.” Nick Ferris, The Stage

“Kristin Milward delivers a bravura performance.” Alun Hood, ajhlovestheatre

“Performed with quietly hypnotic intensity by Kristin Milward.” Judi Herman, Jewish Renaissance

“A monumental performance from Kristin Milward.” Close-Up Culture

“Milward’s wholly committed, riveting, and deeply affecting performance as the woman carries the monologue forward with an intensity that is palpable. Two Ukrainian Plays is worth seeing for this reason alone, but there is much else here to admire too.” John Cutler, The Reviews Hub

“Pussycat In Memory of Darkness monologue—forty-five minutes of inflamed, impassioned, articulate writing, delivered in a blistering performance by Kristin Milward.” Vera Liber, British Theatre Guide

“Polly Creed directs a quite extraordinary, constantly gripping, grim but sometimes blackly humorous performance by Kristin Milward.” Libby Purves, theatreCat

“Polly Creed’s direction is exquisite.” Alun Hood, ajhlovestheatre

“The direction by Svetlana Dimcovic is brisk and…gripping.” Libby Purves, theatreCat

“Artfully directed around the pub-theatre stage by up-and-coming talent Polly Creed.” Nick Ferris, The Stage

“Two moving, emotional shows that bring the experience much closer to the audience’s minds and hearts.” Zuzanna Chmielewska, West End Evenings

“A tour of force.” Close-Up Culture