Macbeth in Wartime Ukraine

Authors

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.18778/2083-8530.31.12

Keywords:

Macbeth in Eastern Europe, Macbeth in Ukraine, Shakespeare in performance, Les Kurbas, contemporary Ukrainian theatre

Abstract

The article discusses the production of Macbeth by The Taras Shevchenko Academic Regional Ukrainian Music and Drama Theatre of Cherkasy, Ukraine. Directed by Stanislav Sadakliiev, this production of Macbeth premiered on 27 January 2024 and paved the way for a new series of theatrical adaptations of the Scottish play produced during the Russian-Ukrainian War. The first part of the article provides a brief overview of Macbeth’s theatrical reception in Ukraine, while the second part focuses on the 2024 staging, including the translation used to produce the effect of urgency for Macbeth in Ukrainian.

Author Biographies

  • Viktoriia Marinesko, Classic Private University, Ukraine

    Viktoriia Marinesko, PhD, is a translator and lecturer at the Classic Private University in Zaporizhzhia, Ukraine. She specialises in translation studies and practice, as well as Shakespeare’s biographies and Shakespeare as a protagonist or character in translation.

  • Anastasiia Brynko, Cherkasy Music and Drama Theatre, Ukraine

    Anastasiia Brynko is the Head of the Literary and Dramatic Department at the Taras Shevchenko Music and Drama Theatre of Cherkasy, a theatre critic, an actress, and a translator. She holds a Master of Arts in English from Bohdan Khmelnytsky National University of Cherkasy and a Master of Arts in Theatre Studies from the Karpenko-Karyi National University of Theatre, Cinema and Television. Her recent publications include “A Date with William” (Shakespeare Bulletin, 2024), co-authored with Viktoriia Marinesko, and “Emotive Lexicon of the Political Narrative: Ukraine and the West in Chinese Media” (Cognition, Communication, Discourse, 2022), co-authored with Svitlana Zhabotynska.

References

Bradley, A. C. Shakespearean Tragedy: Lectures on Hamlet, Othello, King Lear, and Macbeth. London: Macmillan, 1904.

Makaryk, Irena. Shakespeare in the Undiscovered Bourn: Les Kurbas, Ukrainian Modernism and Early Soviet Cultural Politics. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2004. https://doi.org/10.3138/9781442679887

Shakespeare, William. “Macbeth.” Folger Shakespeare Library. https://www.folger.edu/explore/shakespeares-works/macbeth/read/. Accessed 18 December 2024.

Smith, Beccy. “Dakh Centre for Contemporary Arts, Macbeth: The Prologue.” Total Theatre 19 (2) (2007). https://totaltheatre.org.uk/archive/reviews/dakh-centre-contemporary-arts-macbeth-prologue. Accessed 18 December 2024.

Šekspìr, Vil’yam. Makbet. Per. Borisa Tena. Ukraïns’kij Šekspìrìvs’kij Portal [Шекспір, Вільям. Макбет. Пер. Бориса Тена. Український Шекспірівський Портал]. https://shakespeare.znu.edu.ua/makbet-pereklad-b-tena-2/. Accessed 18 December 2024.

Šekspìr, Vil’yam. Makbet. Per. Oleksandra Grâznova. Bìblìoteka ukraïns’koï lìteraturi [Шекспір, Вільям. Макбет. Пер. Олександра Грязнова. Бібліотека української літератури]. https://www.ukrlib.com.ua/world/printit.php?tid=9050. Accessed 18 December 2024.

Šekspìr, Vil’yam. Makbet. Per. Todosâ Os’mački. Kharkiv: State Publishing House of Ukraine, 1930. [Шекспір, Вільям. Макбет. Пер. Тодося Осьмачки. Kharkiv: State Publishing House of Ukraine, 1930].

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Published

2025-12-30

How to Cite

Marinesko, Viktoriia, and Anastasiia Brynko. 2025. “Macbeth in Wartime Ukraine”. Multicultural Shakespeare: Translation, Appropriation and Performance 31 (46): 201-10. https://doi.org/10.18778/2083-8530.31.12.