(opinion article)

Les Kurbas founded the ‘Berezil’ theater in 1922, changing the Ukrainian stage forever. His experimental productions combined avant-garde techniques with deep meaning, opening up new horizons for theater. Kurbas sought to create a theater that not only entertained, but also made the audience think, shaping the audience’s consciousness.

Kurbas broke the mold and introduced something on stage that the audience had never seen before: montage as a way of thinking, light as drama, rhythm, music, movement-everything worked to create a new theater.

A special role in this process was played by the dramatist Mykola Kulish, whose talent and vision became a perfect artistic union with Kurbas’s directorial courage. It was at the ‘Berezol’ that productions were born that are still studied today as examples of avant-garde art: ‘Narodnyi Malakhiy’, ‘Maklena Hrasa’, Myna Mazailo.

‘Berezil’ did not just create performances. It created a new Ukrainian culture. Later, everything came to a halt due to repression, and Kurbas died in 1937, but what he managed to do in those few years is still considered a breakthrough.