UK premiere in an award-winning translation by Nina Murray
In October 2022, Live Canon and the Ukrainian Institute London presented the UK premiere of Lesia Ukrainka’s Cassandra at London’s Omnibus Theatre. In March 2023, the production toured to Oxford and Cambridge as part of the UK-Ukraine Season, produced jointly by the British Council and the Ukrainian Institute.
Lesia Ukrainka’s groundbreaking poetic drama retells the story of the Trojan War from the perspective of Cassandra. Under siege in Troy, Cassandra is cursed to know the truth of what will come, but not to be believed. Today, the tragic prophetess continues to speak with uncanny immediacy in the contemporary era of post-truth politics, under the shadow of Russia’s war in Ukraine.
Lesia Ukrainka’s Cassandra is a masterpiece of European theatre. It has been an honour to work with Live Canon to bring this extraordinary play to UK audiences for the first time.
Maria Montague, Deputy Director of the Ukrainian Institute London, and Executive Producer of the production
Translating a Ukrainian classic for the UK stage
In 2021, Ukrainian Institute London’s translation prize focussed on works by Lesia Ukrainka, celebrating 150 years since the birth of the pioneering feminist writer.
Nina Murray won the the prize with her translation of an extract from Lesia Ukrainka’s Cassandra. Murray’s modern translation of the text foregrounds the play’s powerful resonance today, whilst retaining the poetry of Ukrainka’s original verse.
Lesia Ukrainka’s language is incredibly fresh and agile. It virtually vibrates with tension and energy, and the whole text resonates strongly with contemporary experience.
Nina Murray, translator of Cassandra
An extract of Murray’s translation has been published in Ukrainian Cassandra, published by Live Canon (ed. Sasha Dovzhyk). This anthology of works by Lesia Ukrainka features translations that were shortlisted for the Ukrainian Institute London’s 2021 Translation Prize.
The full translation of Cassandra by Nina Murray will be published by Harvard Ukrainian Research Institute in July 2023.
Ukrainian Cassandra in times of war
Following Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, the Ukrainian Institute London and Live Canon joined forces to stage the UK premiere of Cassandra, propelled by urgency of sharing Ukrainian culture at this time.
Thanks to seed funding from Lesia Scholey (Benefactor of the Ukrainian Institute London) and over 130 supporters of the Ukrainian Institute London’s crowdfunding campaign, it was possible to bring Cassandra to life in a landmark production, directed by Helen Eastman. The London premiere was also supported by the Polish Cultural Institute, the Lithuanian Cultural Institute, the Lithuanian Embassy to the United Kingdom, the Goethe-Institut, the APGRD and the Institut Français.
The production at London’s Omnibus Theatre was accompanied by an exhibition Women of War by Ukrainian artist, Ola Rondiak.
In March 2023, Cassandra toured to Oxford and Cambridge as part of the UK-Ukraine Season of Culture. The productions in Oxford and Cambridge were presented in association with Cambridge Ukrainian Studies, the Cambridge4Ukraine, the University of Cambridge Faculty of Classics, APGRD, and the Oxford Society of Ukrainians.
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is not only about territory: it’s an attempt to stamp out a culture. In the arts, we must refuse to let this happen by amplifying Ukrainian culture in the work that we do.
Helen Eastman, Director of Live Canon’s production of Cassandra
Lesia Ukrainka – Ukraine’s pioneering feminist writer
Lesia Ukrainka (1879–1913) was a modernist author, anticolonial thinker, and pioneering feminist, at the forefront of contemporary European trends at the turn of the twentieth century.
Despite censorship of the Ukrainian language during the Russian empire and Soviet Union, her legacy endured and her work is finally receiving long-overdue English translations. Learn more about Lesia Ukrainka in this blog by Dr Sasha Dovzhyk.
Dr Sasha Dovzhyk
Cassandra is the ultimate feminist killjoy of myth. She is cursed to know the truth but not to be believed. This is a painful figure for Ukrainians who had been warning for years that the war would spread further if Russia was not stopped.
A ground-breaking retelling of the Trojan War
In Oxford and Cambridge, experts in Classics were invited to participate in post-show discussions. Professor Edith Hall and Professor Simon Goldhill both noted the significance of Lesia Ukrainka’s retelling of the Trojan story in Cassandra, written in 1908.
“It is remarkable to compare Ukrainka’s play with other adaptations of Greek texts of this period. In contrast to Gilbert Murray’s celebrated but now profoundly dated versions of Euripides, Ukrainka’s play offers a feminist perspective, and a striking exploration of truth and the failures of political pragmatism, which speaks all too vividly to today’s concerns.”
Simon Goldhill, Professor in Greek literature, University of Cambridge
Professor Edith Hall also emphasised that Lesia Ukrainka’s adaptation of the Trojan story has been sorely understudied in the field of Classics.
“There’s nothing else like it that was written during this period. The French philosopher Simone Weil is credited as being the first person to theorise the idea that the Iliad is a denunciation of military violence rather than a heroic celebration. But Lesia Ukrainka’s feminist retelling of the Trojan War was written 30 years before this!”
Edith Hall, Professor of Classics, Durham University
Reviews of CASSANDRA
“Nina Murray’s new translation of the classic Ukrainian text couldn’t be more relevant”
Euronews
“At a time where we are witnessing cultural genocide in Ukraine, to have such a beloved and vital part of Ukrainian culture shared with the English-speaking world is truly special.”
The Prickle
“A gripping, powerful atmosphere… a remarkable lookout position on another brutal war”
Cast
Cassandra – Evie Florence
Helen/Paris/Clytemnestra – Mairin O’Hagan
Dolon/Deiphobus/Aegisthus – Guy Clark
Onomaus/Helenus/Agamemnon – Joseph Akubeze
Polyxena/Sinon – Mia Foo
Andromache – Rebecca Hare/Abigail Rosser
Voice of Hecuba – Renee Salewski
Additional Male Voices – Simon Muller
Production Team
Translator – Nina Murray
Director – Helen Eastman
Executive Producer – Maria Montague
Associate Director – Abigail Rosser
Set and Costume Designer – Neil Irish
Costume Supervisor – Annet Black
Sound Designer/Composer – Patrick Stockbridge
Lighting Designer – Catja Hamilton
Stage Manager – Olivia Presto, Hannah Mcgeough
Production Manager – Jordan Harris
Associate Producer – Saskia Baylis
Live Canon Interns – Stella Harris, Andrew Nguyen
Exhibition Artist – Ola Rondiak
Exhibition Curator – Lesia Scholey
