Canadian Slavonic Papers· 2026Q1
Witnessing war across borders: Tamara Trunova’s stagings of Natalka Vorozhbyt’s Bad Roads in Ukraine and Sweden
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Short summary
Tamara Trunova's stagings of Natalka Vorozhbyt's 'Bad Roads' in Ukraine (2018) and Sweden (2024) reveal a shared emphasis on witnessing and communication rooted in uncertainty and suspicion, resisting victimhood narratives.
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Key points
- Trunova's productions of 'Bad Roads' in Ukraine and Sweden share a core theme of communication through uncertainty and suspicion.
- The stagings, like the play's text, resist simple victimhood narratives by emphasizing disbelief.
- Analysis considers both text and stage, as well as Ukrainian and Swedish cultural contexts.
- The concept of 'implicated witnessing' is introduced as a mode of artistic communication fostering critical audience engagement.
AI-generated from the title and abstract; the full text is not read.
Abstract
The article presents a comparative analysis of the Ukrainian and Swedish theatre performances of Bad Roads, as directed by Tamara Trunova and staged in Kyiv since 2018 and in Gothenburg in 2024. Both performances are analyzed in relation to Natalka Vorozhbyt’s play of the same title from 2017, depicting the Donbas war in 2014. Analysis of both the text and the onstage plays reveals a significant pattern of witnessing and communication based on uncertainty and suspicion. Although enacted differently – depending on the medium (text/stage) and cultural context (Ukrainian/Swedish) – the author argues that the play’s emphasis on disbelief resists structures of victimization and blurs the categories of victim/perpetrator. By situating these findings within the post-colonial processes that followed the Euromaidan in 2013–14, the article identifies the category of “implicated witnessing” as a mode of artistic communication that elicits critical thinking, self-reflection, and ethical responsibility from audiences both within Ukraine and beyond its borders.
The authors' abstract, as published at the source. Canadian Slavonic Papers, 2026 · DOI ↗
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Field: Visual Arts and Performing Arts
Visual Arts and Performing ArtsArts and Humanities