You're reading: The story of a Boston playwright who fell in love with Ukraine’s theaters

A woman wearing a flirty yellow beret goes down the stairs of Kyiv Academic Youth Theatre checking out the photos on its walls. Somewhere there are photos from plays, written by her, too, but she doesn’t remember where exactly.

Having spent 12 years in Ukraine after it gained independence, and now living in Boston, Massachusetts, dramatist Irena Koval, 64, pays rare visits to Ukraine, where her plays live on stage.

The Ukrainian-American still dreams to come back sometimes to be closer to her beloved Kyiv theaters.

Her first play, “Lion and Lioness,” written in 1998 in Kyiv, describe the complicated relationship of Leo Tolstoy and his wife Sofia. It was staged by Kyiv Academic Youth Theatre in 2001.

But according to Koval, she always considered actor Bohdan Stupka, her inspiration, to be the best candidate for the play’s main role. So she was glad when the play was also taken by Ivan Franko’s National Academic Drama Theatre and Stupka played Tolstoy.

She had met Stupka in the 1990s, when she interviewed him for the BBC and says that the meeting changed her life. “After hearing him talking about the theater, something just hit me – theater was my real calling,” Koval says.

Her first play “caused a scandal,” Koval remembers. “That’s because no one has written about Tolstoy in such way before. I showed deconstruction of his myth.”

The diary of Tolstoy’s wife, Sofia, was the impetus for creating the play.

“I used to idolize Tolstoy. But when I read diaries of his wife, I saw him from a different angle,” Koval says. “Due to his ideals that could barely be adapted to everyday life, living with him was not easy, sometimes [it was] hellishly difficult.”

Koval says she is a slow writer. Her next play, “Marinated Aristocrat,” didn’t appear until about two years after the first one. It was also staged by the Kyiv Academic Youth Theatre, starring noted Ukrainian actors Oleksiy Vertinsky and Irma Vitovska, playing respectively the Ukrainian actor-immigrant and his wife.

In the play, the Ukrainian actor leaves his motherland after the Soviet Union collapses to seek a better life in Britain, while his wife tries to survive in a post-Soviet Ukraine.

I used to idolize Tolstoy. But when I read diaries of his wife, I saw him from a different angle

– Irena Koval

“That’s the modern view of Ukraine and the UK. I wanted to understand the way Ukrainians see capitalism, the way they look at the market, the way they behave.

The reaction of Irma Vitovska’s character is the most interesting. While her husband moves to the UK, she stays in Ukraine and sells underwear at the market,” Koval says.

She also has these personal observations about Ukrainians in the 1990s.

“People were confused, they tried to explore the market, it was like a different world for them,” Koval recalls.

Speaking about the reason her aristocrat-actor is “marinated,” Koval says it is her metaphor for Ukraine itself: “Ukraine has not fully entered the world outside. It stays pickled in a jar, marinated in its own juice.”

After releasing two successful plays, Koval temporarily changed her genre. Her first novel, “Ballerina Without Pointes,” was presented on Oct. 27 in Kyiv.

Just like her previous works, it was first published in Ukrainian. It is a matter of principle for the playwright. Even though she writes in English, she closely controls the Ukrainian translation process. In her new book, the ballerina named Gabi gets fat and goes through some other changes in search for happiness.

“One journalist called this story a realistic one, describing the tragic in our world,” Koval says. “Another considered it surrealism and a fantasy, an absurd game that puts everything upside down – a fat ballerina, a ballerina without pointes. The third one called it a lyrical fairytale, where the dancer is looking for love. Someone else saw ‘satire on every page.’ But the thing is that all of them are right.”

The dramatist points out that, reading her “Ballerina,” one should not think about moral values, but enjoy the book. “I play with fantasy and with satire. And if you don’t enter this game with me, you won’t get anything from the book”, she says.

My normal day in Boston starts with a walk in a forest with my dog. Then I do some things around the house and, only late at night, I may be writing.

Irena Koval

The book was designed and illustrated by Sergiy Masloboischikov, who is better known as a Ukrainian film director.

Koval confesses that her writer’s life doesn’t always gel with her private one. Her husband reads her works, but doesn’t provide any feedback. “And that is good, because if he did, it could affect our relationship,” she says.

Her husband, who used to run a multinational company, is now leading the church choir in Boston and painting.

Even though many of Koval’s age, particularly in Ukraine, avoid using modern technology, she is in love with the computer and the opportunities it gives a writer. “I cannot imagine writing without using it. I correct almost every line,” Koval says.

Despite three published works, she finds it hard to write.

“I postpone writing for as long as possible. My normal day in Boston starts with a walk in a forest with my dog. Then I do some things around the house and, only late at night, I may be writing.”

Koval calls her walks with a dog – a golden retriever from Kyiv, who the dramatist says only understands Ukrainian – the best moments of her American life. When in Kyiv, the best times for Koval is when she is in a theater.

“I’m not sure if locals understand how great Kyiv theaters are. When I’m here, I go see plays almost every night,” she says. “When in Boston, I have to go to New York for a good play.”

Koval is now working on two pieces, an autobiographical novel “Displaced,” and a mysterious play, whose idea originated from two actresses. The novel is almost finished, she said.

“I don’t want to give away the plot of ‘Displaced,’ except to say it is autobiographical, has been read in writer’s workshops and has generated a great deal of interest,” Koval says.

Koval was born in Germany and then grew up in U.S. in a family of emigrants from western Ukraine.

Contrary to the name of the novel, Koval confesses she doesn’t feel torn between the U.S. and Ukraine.

“I am fortunate to be able to integrate tworich and very different cultures in my life,” she says.

“Pickled Aristocrat” will run in Kyiv Academic Youth Theatre on March 10.
Tickets are available for Hr 40-70.

Kyiv Post staff writer Olga Rudenko can be reached at [email protected]