A powerful new play by Ukrainian playwright Inna Gonchorova, inspired by the devastating events in Mariupol in 2022, is coming to Cheltenham’s Everyman Theatre at the end of September, writes Katie Jarvis.
Following highly acclaimed runs in Wiesbaden and London’s Finborough Theatre, British actor Kristin Milward gives a riveting solo performance as The Trumpeter — the sole surviving member of a military brass band sheltering beneath the Azovstal Steelworks.
As war rages above, the trumpeter spends his time writing a Symphony of War, attempting to transform the violence of bomb blasts into the beauty of music. Alongside his story, the play weaves in the lives of a nurse, a lieutenant, and a lawyer trapped underground with him.
For Milward, who grew up in a village near Tewkesbury, the play is as much about love and the resilience of the human spirit as it is about conflict:
“We may look different, hold different views — political, spiritual, cultural — be driven by different passions, but most of us desire the same things: fulfilment, love, a sense of belonging, even in impossible situations. That’s what is so moving about the human condition: the fact that we rarely give up.”
Milward’s relationship with Ukraine began when she starred in Pussycat in Memory of Darkness by Ukrainian playwright Neda Nezhdana, performed at London’s Finborough Theatre in 2023 to sold-out audiences and critical acclaim. After moving performances in Kyiv and other Ukrainian cities in 2022 and 2023, she became deeply committed to telling Ukrainian stories on stage.
Reflecting on her connection to the country, she said: “When asked in Kyiv why I cared, I explained that my mother, as a very young woman, had been recruited into the official Norwegian resistance and later had to flee for her life. I never forgot her rage against the invasion, even after all those years. It was because of that I’ve always detested oppression.”
The Trumpeter, from September 26-28, takes place at the Squeak pop-up venue in Sandford Park; https://www.everymantheatre.org.uk/shows/the-trumpeter
