Guest Blog: 'It Is Not Depressing But Uplifting': Translator John Farndon on New Ukrainian Play THE TRUMPETER

Back in February, I witnessed something I've never seen in theatre before, even though I've seen many hundreds of shows. It was in the Wiesbaden Staatstheater in Germany, and the play was Ukrainian playwright Inna Goncharova's The Trumpeter performed in English by actress Kristin Milward. At the end of the performance, the mixed audience of Ukrainians and Germans rose slowly to their feet, weeping and cheering at the same time, and stayed like this for a very long time. It was extremely moving to witness.

Ever since the full scale Russian invasion of Ukraine began in February 2022, I've been translating many of the remarkable new plays being written by Ukrainian dramatists in response to the war. Back in 2022, I translated Neda Nejdana's Pussycat in Memory of Darkness which ran at the Finborough to a raft of glowing reviews and was a finalist for Offies Best New Play. But The Trumpeter really is something very special, and that Wiesbaden audience knew it.

On the surface, the play is the story of a trumpeter soldier, trapped inside the vast basement of the Azovstal steelworks in Mariupol as it is besieged relentlessly by Russian forces in spring 2022. The long resistance of the Azov brigade amid the indescribable horror of the siege has become a powerful image for Ukrainians, symbolic of both their suffering and their extraordinary defiance.

But Inna Goncharova has turned this story into something much more. Her trumpeter sees himself solely as a creator, a writer of music, yet is forced to kill to stay alive, to defend his home.  The events of the play maybe real, or it may be all happening in the trumpeter's mind, as he tries to reconcile the constant impact of shelling with the symphony of war he wishes to create.

But what makes this play so powerful and so resonant, not just for Ukrainians, but for all is that it does not just bear witness to the horror of war, but finds meaning and, ultimately, love. It is not depressing but uplifting.

After that extraordinary response in Wiesbaden, Kristin, director Vladimir Shcherban and I were certain it should be seen in London. That's why we were thrilled when the Finborough's director Neil Macpherson, after reading the script and seeing videos of the performance in Wiesbaden, at once offered us the chance of a month's run in July.

We had no money whatsoever, but we were determined to make it happen – and not just make it happen, but respond to the play's theme and make it a platform for an exciting month long festival of connected events. From wonderful Ukrainian poet Kateryna Babkina collaborating with young singer bandura maestro Mariia Petrovska, to a reading by Matthew Zajac and Maureen Beattie of a great new play by Ukrainian teenager in exile Kseniia Kozlievska, plus evenings of war poetry led by celebrated actress Janie Dee and Stephen Omer, and much much more.

Ultimately, though, it is the full blast of The Trumpeter which we feel sure will seize the attention.

The Trumpeter is at the Finborough Theatre from 9 July - 3 August

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