On a summer day in August 1920, in the middle of war, a group of Ukrainians performed Macbeth. In these wartime conditions, they did a play about the murder of a king and the ensuing chaos and devastation, painfully relevant to all audiences who had endured not only World War I, but also the fierce battles for control of this region after the Romanov and Habsburg empires collapsed. Audiences and artists knew uncertainty, violence, and pain.  

Written by Mayhill Fowler. Narration by Dr. Nicholas B. Breyfogle. A textual version of this video is available at https://origins.osu.edu/read/ukrainian-theater-soviet-stage.

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