On June 9th in Elektronik Cinema in Warsaw took place a charity action “Kasandra – Reading for the Right Thing”. It was a read-along connected with fundraising and necessities collection organized to support the National Dramatic Theatre in Ivano-Frankivsk. During the event, actors read “Kasandra” by Lesya Ukrainka, a classic Ukrainian female author.
Lesya Ukrainka was born in 1871 in Novohrad-Volynski, at the time a part of the Russian Empire. She was a poet, writer, translator and literary critic, which she took after her mother Olha Drahomova-Kosach, a feminist and writer better known under the literary pseudonym Olena Pchilka. Her father was Petro Antonovych Kosach, who was a big Ukrainian patriot who financially supported Ukrainian publishing although it was illegal. Growing up with those values, no wonder she entered the canon of Ukrainian literature.
Lesya Ukrainka’s works criticised the tsar’s autocracy and expressed the longing for Ukraine’s independence. She wrote from the age of 8 until she died in 1913, leaving a vast literary legacy. Some of her most famous works are poems “Contra Spem Spero”, “Comrades in Memory” and “Sinner”, novels “Such is Her Fate!” and “Holy Evening!” and dramas “The Blue Rose” and “Kasandra”. She also translated the works of Homer, Adam Mickiewicz and Victor Hugo into Ukrainian.
“Kassandra” is set during the ending phases of the Trojan War. It follows princess Kassandra, a blind prophet, and tells a story of a vanquished nation, tragic personal stories and political games. The play was directed by Jerzy Machowski, and main roles were played by Edyta Januszewska (Kasandra), Paulina Masiak (Poliksena), Kamil Pruban (Paris) and Wiktor Loga-Skarczewski (Agamemnon). The event started at 7 P.M. at the Elektronik Cinema. Guests could bring money, but also canned food, medicine and hygiene products. They were later passed over to the civilian help centre at the National Dramatic Theatre in Ivano-Frankivsk.