A Dictionary of Emotions in a Time of War: 20 Short Works by Ukrainian Playwrights

by John Freedman (Editor, Translator)

An anthology of visceral works written during the Russian invasion of Ukraine by the 20 playwrights of the Theater of Playwrights in Kyiv. The title is taken from Olena Astaseva's short text, "A Dictionary of Emotions in a Time of War," which, in the first nine months after its translation, was performed over 50 times in 11 countries. Other already internationally popular works include Liudmyla Tymoshenko's "My Tara," Iryna Harets' "Planting an Apple Tree," Andriy Bondarenko's "Survivor's Syndrome," Natalia Blok's "Our Children," Oksana Savchenko's "I Want to Go Home," Natalka Vorozhbyt's "Three Rendezvous," Maksym Kurochkin's "Three Attempts to Improve Daily Life," and others. From the website of The Imaginists Theater in Santa Rosa, CA: "The texts explode the notion of what a play even is, they defy categorization, and connect us to people caught up in the unimaginable reality of war."

268 pages, Paperback

First published October 3, 2023

About the author

John Freedman is a writer and translator who, for decades, concentrated on Russian drama and theater, but has recently refocused his efforts to work from Ukraine and Belarus. He lived in Moscow for 30 years, 25 of which he spent as the theater critic of the English-language daily The Moscow Times. He worked as the English language specialist in the International Department of Moscow's Stanislavsky Electrotheatre from 2015-2022. His play "Dancing, Not Dead" won the Internationalists Global Playwriting Contest in 2011, and his 150 or more translations of Russian, Ukrainian and Belarusian plays have been performed on every English-speaking continent. "A Dictionary of Emotions in a Time of War: 20 Short Works by Ukrainian Playwrights," compiled, edited and translated by Freedman for Laertes Press, was named No. 22 in the Telegraph's list of the top 50 books of 2023. He currently lives on the island of Crete in Greece.

Reviews

[Matt Shea · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read a lot of plays and, generally speaking, I don't include them here on Goodreads. But, in the case of reading this full collection, I make an exception as the work contained here is of the utmost importance on the global stage at this perilous moment.

Maksym Kurochkin, renowned Ukrainian playwright and screenwriter, was about to celebrate the soon-to-open Theatre of Playwrights in Kyiv, where he is a co-founder and artistic director, when the Russian invasion began. Instead of preparing for opening night, he joined the Territorial Defense Force to defend his country. John Freedman, a lauded author and translator who I've had the pleasure of working with on several occasions reached out to Kurochkin about staging a Worldwide Play Reading to support Ukraine, an endeavor he had been approached to help curate by playwright William Wong.

The result, after many understandable delays was an international series of public readings, with the flagship being by the one in June of 2022, in Kyiv, at the future home the Theatre of Playwrights. Here in the states, I had the honor of participating in one hosted by Single Carrot Theatre in Baltimore.

These readings have culminated in this collection of 20 short plays and monologues, each written as bombs exploded outside their authors' windows. Each showing different aspects of the brutal, hellish life in Ukraine today, told by artists currently living in and fighting for it. Each an important work that needs as large of an audience as possible.

Whoever you are, dear reader, I hope you'll buy a copy of this collection and give yourself a very personal, intimate insight into life in Ukraine today.

https://www.laertesbooks.org/purchase...