The lines for the show snake down the block, with people waiting up to seven hours to buy tickets for the theater in central Kiev. Videos of the performance have been viewed millions of times online.
The big hit isn't a hit Broadway musical or a series of concerts by a pop star; it's a play based on a classic 19th-century Ukrainian novel, “The Witch of Konotop,” and the atmosphere is anything but cheerful. Consider the opening line: “It's sad and gloomy.”
Mykhailo Matiukhin, an actor in the production, said this has struck a chord with Ukrainians because it shows “what we are going through right now.”
“Tragedy comes and takes everything from you, your love and your home,” he said.
The play dramatizes the story of a Cossack leader in a Ukrainian community nearly 400 years ago as he tries to eradicate witches that local townspeople believe are responsible for a drought. The action takes place against the backdrop of a military threat from Tsarist Russia – something that resonates with Ukrainians today, who consume daily and often dispiriting battlefield news and brace for missile attacks from modern Russia on their cities at night.
Ivan Uryvsky, the director, said the audience was particularly fascinated by the sense of impending tragedy in the play, which is being staged at the Ivan Franko Theater in Kiev.
Instead of escaping the war, many Ukrainians have flocked to the stretch to find meaning in their lives, he said.
“It is very difficult to exaggerate the harsh reality in which Ukrainians now live, but theater should sense the atmosphere of the times and the people,” Uryvsky said. “If we succeed, the piece will touch people's hearts.”
The play's success also underlines a renewed interest in Ukrainian cultural heritage since Russia's large-scale invasion of the country in February 2022, which has manifested itself in theatre, literature and art. This includes the culture of the Cossacks, the semi-nomadic people who populated the steppes of Ukraine and southern Russia.
“When the war started, there was a new wave of interest in our history and culture,” says Susanna Karpenko, who composed the music for the piece. Ms. Karpenko said she was influenced by Ukrainian folk music and wanted to appeal to an audience eager to understand their own culture. “There is a lot of demand for that in Ukraine now,” she said.
Under the Soviet Union, Russia dominated both politically and culturally the area that is now Ukraine, and books in Ukrainian were largely banned. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, Russia continued to expand its cultural influences in Ukraine by purchasing radio and television stations, newspapers, and book publishers.
Ukrainians began to withdraw and assert a stronger sense of their own identity, a trend that snowballed with the two Russian invasions of their country – in Crimea and eastern Ukraine in 2014, and the attack on the entire country in 2022.
After the invasion, Kiev's vibrant theater scene, like many other sources of entertainment, virtually collapsed as fighting and rocket attacks disrupted normal life and millions of people fled the country.
But Ukrainian theater has returned. According to theater critic Serhiy Vynnychenko, the founder of an online platform that analyzes theater-related data, 350 new plays were performed across Ukraine in 2023. That is double the number in the first year of the large-scale invasion, although it is still well below the number of performances before the Covid pandemic and the invasion.
The “Witch of Konotop” debuted last spring and the buzz around it continued to grow, as did the demand for tickets this year. The show is now part of the theater repertoire and there are currently no plans to end it.
The novel and play by Hryhorii Kvitka-Osnovianenko tell the story of Mykyta Zaboha, an administrator of a Cossack city who falls in love with a beautiful woman who refuses to marry him. Zabroha's grief at being rejected is compounded by a terrible drought that has gripped his city. Angry at women in general and under the influence of his devious, selfish clerk, he decides that it is all the witches' fault.
The play is set in the 17th century, when Tsarist Russia sought to expand its control over the lands that are now Ukraine. As Zabroha searches for witches, his superiors order him to send soldiers to fight the Russians.
The prospect of going to war only reinforces the Cossacks' belief that they are being undermined by witches and that they must drown them – a task that Zabroha pursues with ruthless energy rather than preparing for war.
The play ends with the villagers discovering a witch after drowning several innocent women. But the witch has the last laugh by casting a spell that causes Zabroha to marry an unattractive woman in the village.
Finally, he is fired by his superiors for neglecting his duties in preparation for defense against the Russians.
The current war against Russia has prompted many young Ukrainians to discover theater for themselves, says Evhen Nyshchuk, the manager of the Ivan Franko Theater, which stages classics that typically appeal to older audiences.
In addition to the sold-out shows, posts with the hashtag “The Witch of Konotop” have been viewed 35 million times on TikTok, which is mainly used by young people in Ukraine.
In addition to young people's interest in their history, according to theater critic Vynnychenko, many cultural events and concerts to which they are usually attracted were canceled due to the war, leaving few entertainment options.
Anastasia Shpytalenko, 15, recently attended the performance with a group of friends after waiting in line for five hours to buy tickets. “We heard it was very popular and wanted to give it a try,” she said.
The piece “shows us what our culture really is,” said Daria Filonenko, 15, while another, Anastasia Yakushko, 16, chimed in: “This piece is just wow! Apparently old can sometimes be more interesting than new.”
Witches resonate strongly in Ukrainian culture and are a mainstay of folk customs. Early in the war, a video from the actual city of Konotop, in northeastern Ukraine, went viral online. A woman was captured approaching a tank as Russian forces entered Ukraine. She calls on witches to defy the soldiers.
'Do you even know where you are? It's Konotop,' the woman said. “Every second woman here is a witch,” she added, before telling a Russian soldier he would be cursed with impotence.
A Ukrainian pop song about a witch who curses the enemy, written by the poet Liudmyla Horova, can often be heard in cafes. “Enemy, you get what the witch gives you,” the text reads.
Witch-themed souvenirs and T-shirts have also been distributed throughout Ukraine after two years of war. One clothing brand made a T-shirt with an image of a witch dressed in khaki camouflage, flying on a shoulder-fired anti-tank missile instead of a broom. All this fuels the play's popularity, according to the organizers.
“Ukrainians,” said Mr. Uryvsky, the theater director, “are attracted by the image of the witch.”