Nights for Ukraine 23rd-24th May 2025.

Cockpit
Theatre/Music

Stone Wolf Productions
NIGHTS FOR UKRAINE
Drama
The Trumpeter by Inna Gonchorova (translated by John Farndon)
Performed by Kristin Milward; Directed by Vladimir Shcherban

Ukraine Rising: Plays by Young Ukrainian Playwrights
Life is Absurd, But Love is Good by Asia Pshenychna
Christmas in the Shade by Kseniia Koziievska
Performed by Maureen Beattie and Matthew Zajac

Music
Mariia Yaremak and friends
Mariia Petrovska and friends

COCKPIT
7.30 Fri 23 May, 7.30 Sat 24 May, (150 mins)
Tickets: £16.45 in advance, £21.60 on the door (Incl booking fees)
Booking information:
https://tickets.thecockpit.org.uk/sales/shows/nights-for-ukraine

A brilliant showcase of Ukrainian women’s music and drama

Nights for Ukraine brings together an exhilarating line-up of Ukrainian and British artists in two special fundraising performances that showcase Ukraine’s brilliant young women musicians and dramatists alongside a towering performance by Kristin Milward of Ukrainian playwright Inna Goncharova’s The Trumpeter.

Each of the two evenings opens with Kristin Milward’s riveting solo performance of The Trumpeter, following highly acclaimed runs in Wiesbaden, Germany and London’s Finborough Theatre. Inspired by true events, The Trumpeter bears witness to Russia’s devastating attack on Mariupol and is also a moving and timeless reflection on the role of art in war.

“I write music, Kolya. Composers always and everywhere write music. Even in the bunker. Even during the war.”

Both nights climax with the glorious music of Mariia Yaremak and Mariia Patrovska and friends. Mariia Yaremak is a brilliant Ukrainian composer and pianist whose rich and haunting fantasy style of Ukrainian melodies has scored millions of hits on the internet and earned her sell-out concerts in Ukraine’s biggest music venues. Mariia Petrovska is a charismatic bandura player and singer, and one of the rising stars of Ukrainian music. She combines a complete mastery of the bandura with a pure, emotive voice, making Ukrainian traditional music sound utterly fresh and contemporary.

The middle of the evening is Ukraine Rising – a showcase of readings of short plays by exciting young Ukrainian writers in exile: Christmas in the Shade by Kseniia Koziievska, with celebrated British actress Maureen Beattie and Matthew Zajac, hot from the Traverse and Finborough. And Life is Absurd but Love is Good by Asia Pshenychna – can love thrive under the bombs?

About THE TRUMPETER
Trapped beneath the Azovstal steelworks during the siege, the battered remnants of Ukraine’s 36th Marine Brigade endure the never-ending barrage of Russian heavy artillery. The trumpeter, the only survivor of the Brigade’s brass band, shares the terrifying darkness with two compatriots. As the shells fall threatening death at any second, the trumpeter desperately tries to find the harmony in the noise that will enable him to compose a symphony of war.

This is the second Ukrainian play that Kristin Milward gives as a solo performance. She received multiple 5 star reviews and a “Best Play” and “Best Lead Performance in A Play” nomination in the OffWestEnd Awards for Pussycat in Memory of Darkness, by Neda Nejdana, first performed in 2022 at The Finborough Theatre and again in 2023, after which, it subsequently became `the first foreign production to perform in Ukraine since the Russian invasion began, and has been seen internationally in Germany, Portugal, the USA and again on a second visit to Ukraine.

For more information, please contact:
John Farndon, Stone Wolf Productions
E: jfarndon@dircon.co.uk | 0779 2020165