Theatre Nativity Scene. Musical performance Kyiv 2025-12-26 15:00:00

“Nativity Scene. Musical Performance” returns the audience to the original meaning of the ancient Ukrainian tradition, in which Christmas was not just a holiday, but always a story about saving life. At the center of the plot is a baby who must be saved, and Tsar Herod, whose death becomes a victory. It organically combines authentic carols of the Slobozhanshchyna, excerpts from the Gospel, a UPA insurgent carol, and images from ancient ritual layers of Ukrainian theater.

The performance was created in Kharkiv in the first year of the full-scale invasion, and it is not a decorative spectacle, but a living and modern Christmas performance that keeps life on its side.

It is also an art nativity scene, since the author of the scenography, Kharkiv sculptor, artist, graphic artist, muralist, and culturologist Konstantin Zorkin, is last year’s winner of the “GRA” award for best scenography. The images he created: birds, palms, houses, red beads, figures of light and darkness — not only illustrate the plot, but also transmit archetypes, translating them into the language of contemporary art. Each thing is a symbol.

Director Oksana Dmitrieva says that for her the formula of the nativity scene is always the same: “Christmas happens here and now.” And here and now of this performance is Ukraine, which is at war and gives birth to hope.

The performance participated in theater festivals:
- Mini-festival “VertepShvid”, Kharkiv, January 2023;
- 12th International Theater Festival “Retroperspektywy”, Lodz, Poland, August 2023;
- “Festival Mondial des Théâtres de Marionnettes”, Charleville-Mézières, France, September 2023;
- Documentary Theater Festival “Theaterfestival Neues Europa”, Cologne, Germany, September 2023.‍