It is now busy time at the Ivan Franko National Theater – the final rehearsals of the Anthem of Democratic Youth, staged by Yuri Odynoky, are in progress. Its genre is tragicomedy. The novel of the same name by our contemporary and a fashionable Kharkiv writer Serhii Zhadan was essentially reshaped by the director and adapted to the stage. All obscenities, which provide a certain coloring of the novel, were removed. Let’s recall that when Zhadan’s book was published in 2006, it drew wide reaction among the readers. The play Anthem of Democratic Youth will take us back into the turbulent 1990s. In order to survive, people tried very hard: someone drove goods to the Polish market, and someone “patronized” traders... The main characters – San Sanych (this role is rehearsed by Dmytro Rybalevsky and Dmytro Chernov) and Goga (Oleh Stalchuk and Arsen Tymoshenko), after having tried many different professions, decided to open a nightclub. On the way to their dream they are to meet different and very colorful characters (tax inspectors, firefighters, super-Xerox mobsters, head of culture department and others). And there is only one person in this phantom-world – Marta (Ksenia Basha and Tetiana Shliakhova), whose soul has not yet roughened... This play is about the destruction of old morality and the young people looking for their place under the sun. Decorating productions were made by Viktor Shulha, choreography – by
Olha Semoshkina, the choirmaster is Anatolii Navrotsky. This production will be significant for the Franko Theater performers, as these days the theater group does not often apply to works by contemporary Ukrainian writers, and Serhii Zhadan is a creative, albeit a startling person. His works are popular among the young people (the author promised to visit the premiere in Kyiv), and the viewers, after seeing a playbill entitled Anthem of Democratic Youth, will surely come to the theater.
