The Vitally Important Project focused its efforts on the challenges faced by women serving life terms in a Ukrainian prison. The project is the brainchild of playwright Теtiana Kytsenko who decided to write a drama about the women incarcerated at Ukraine's Kachanivska Women's Penal Colony. The final result saw the production of both the opera, PENITA.opera, and a series of human rights events. Теtiana tells us here about the work and experiences of the artists and human rights activists involved.
Теtiana Kytsenko, project developer and curator
The opera was staged five times—in Odesa, Kharkiv, Dnipro and Kyiv—and supplemented by a conceptual photo exhibit by Rusya Aseyeva focusing on incarcerated women. The opera's libretto was one curator Теtiana Kytsenko had been considering for a long time, but everything came together in Vitally Important.
I found a composer who was perfect, who shared my passion for this – Zoltan Almashi – and a topic that really clicked. Life imprisonment is, in one way or another, about love and death, and the language of this opera really brought out the drama of the subject, expressing it in metaphor given life by the stories of these women. PENITA.opera, for me, was a naturally occurring event.
Among those involved in the project were composer Zoltan Almashi, director Maksym Holenko, choreographer Maskym Bulhakov, the Revutskyi Quartet, the Kyiv Camerata and the National Union of Composers of Ukraine.
What really gave the project resonance was the support of the human rights activists. They go deep into the issue and are just as invested as we are in solving it. So, working with the Kharkiv Human Rights Protection Group and the European Prison Litigation Network (EPLN) has been so important to us. What we artists are offering the prisoners is moral support and what the human rights people are bringing is practical, advisory, informational support, letting the public know about the problems faced by women in prison.
Теtiana says that her aim as the creator of the opera was to speak as honestly as possible about these women and increase concern for them. She wanted to show that women serving these sentences were people just like them, with feelings, weaknesses. She also expected audiences to react negatively.
But the opposite happened. People were leaving the hall stunned, in tears. Our audience feedback forms were filled with 'thank you's'. Unquestionably, there were those who, for one reason or another, didn't like PENITA.opera. But we welcome the criticism as well because we know we can improve our work.
In addition to the opera, Kyiv and Kharkiv would play host to the "Problems of Women Imprisoned for Life in Ukraine: International Experience and European Conditions" Conference. International expertise was also brought in to meet with women imprisoned in Kachanivska Prison, to provide them with professional consultation. Теtiana Kytsenko reports that events of this calibre help to bring these issues to public attention and alter the perception of them both among the public and sector professionals.
The Kachanivska Prison administration gave Теtiana permission to interview the women serving life sentences and also allowed Rusya Aseyeva to photograph them. However, they twice refused us to stage the opera there, giving as their official reason concern it would prompt suicides among the prisoners. Теtiana tells that Liubov Kushynska, the only one amid women imprisoned for life in Ukraine who has received a pardon in 2018, attended the performance and stated that the other inmates would have supported it.
Теtiana thinks that any artist working in social theatre is obligated to share what they know about current social problems, an effort she believes will result in arts projects that are both substantial and relatable. Her experiences with Vitally Important serve as witness to the value (to the project) of working with psychologists, sociologists and human rights advocates.
PENITA.opera is now included in the Kyiv National Academic Operetta's Theatre repertoire. There's an upcoming performance set for 16 January and, as with earlier performances, Теtiana is hopeful that each performance will be accompanied by human rights events.
More videos from the conference (in Ukrainian only) could be found via the link.
