Near the stage in Odesa, a pair of wounded Ukrainian veterans sat in wheelchairs – one missing one of his legs, the other missing both – watching Princess Olha come to life. Onstage, actress Yulia Nelson embodied the medieval ruler who turned the murder of her husband into a campaign of ruthless vengeance. In the audience, the scars of today’s war lent the ancient tale a stark, modern resonance.
As dancers did last-minute practice of their steps, Nelson sat in her dressing room and talked to Kyiv Post as a woman applied her makeup.
“I felt tired after rehearsal,” she admitted. “We have a lot of new dancers because some left.”
Nelson, an Odesa native, said Princess Olha is the strongest role she’s ever played.
“Because of the identity of this woman, of this personality,” she explained, “she left a huge mark in culture and not only in culture, in religious things, you know, because she brought Christianity.”
What strikes Nelson the most, however, is Olha’s resolve: “Some people, our people, wanted our politicians to be like her, like never ever forgive, never ever forgive anyone who did such bad things to our people, our children, our women, our men.”
Princess Olha’s legacy
“Princess Olha was one of the first women to rule in Eastern Europe – and she did so with intelligence, strength, and vision,” Kateryna Voloshyna, a philologist and cultural sociologist, told Kyiv Post.
Voloshyna emphasized that Kyivan Rus was a multi-ethnic and independent East Slavic polity, centered in modern-day Ukraine, as opposed to a predecessor to the modern Russian state.
“Today, reclaiming this historical truth is more than a scholarly task – it’s a matter of national identity and resistance to cultural erasure,” Voloshyna added.
After her husband, Prince Ihor, was murdered, Princess Olha exacted retribution on the Drevlians – burying envoys alive, burning others in a bathhouse, and, in the chronicle tradition, using birds to set their capital, Iskorosten, on fire. Yet she is also remembered for introducing Christianity, a turning point for the region’s spiritual life.
For Ukrainians, Olha’s dual legacy – ruthless justice and cultural transformation – resonates strongly today. In wartime, she symbolizes national resilience, particularly the refusal of women to surrender amid Russia’s invasion.
Nelson admits playing her is daunting: “Her huge love for her husband is something that is really hard to play for me,” she said. “I don’t know how it is… but I know that she never gave up on him.”
Mirroring today’s grief
On the stage at the Odesa Academic Theatre of Musical Comedy, Olha’s ancient sorrow feels familiar, mirroring the stories that women in Ukraine are sharing today.
“A lot of women told us ‘We wanted to stop our guys from going to the war and they went, and they died,’” Nelson said. “So I guess that this is really a big thing in this performance, and I hear girls and women talking about it.”
Ukrainian cultural defiance
“We have to tell people something really important… we have to be like a guide,” Nelson said. “We interpret the things that huge personalities wrote before, and we have to translate it to people.”
The performance ended without interruption. But the following night, Aug. 27–28, Russian missiles and drones struck Kyiv, killing at least 23 people, including four children.
In this context, Nelson’s portrayal of Olha – a woman who turned personal tragedy into national strength – feels urgent, prophetic even.