Lydia Korsun. New York. Antimony

This is a story about the Unbreakable. Our defenders. Our hope. Those who have been defending the lands of Ukraine from the aggressor for the 4th year on a large scale, and for the 11th year in total, for almost two hours, one of them, a fighter (call sign – Avdiy) of the Third Separate Assault Brigade, in civilian life Honored Artist of Ukraine Yevhen Avdeyenko, tells us about this. He tells and simultaneously reproduces what was said in the monoplay “Not Born for War”.

The performance is not based on a play or a written script. These are structured stories of various episodes of the life of Avdiy himself and his comrades from the front. From the front line. These are real facts or memories or even reflections, which are also in the performance, and, I will not be afraid of such a word, their brilliantly talented presentation on stage made an unexpectedly strong, exciting, unforgettable impression. Each of the 10 performances, performed in two weeks in 6 states of America, ended with warm applause, excited, lively excitement of the audience. And wide publicity about this event and its organizers.

This is the result of the first goal of this tour of the One-Actor Theater - artistic and informational: to show the moral advantages of our soldiers over the occupier, who acts by completely violating his humanity and all God's and international laws. And the authors of the one-man show successfully succeeded in this.

"When we become co-participants in the action, we feel that we are touching something real, high, pure, despite the fact that war itself is disgusting filth... The people here are giants, with God on their side," says Myroslava Rozdolska, one of the organizers of this tour, in her reviews of the characters of the play.

The second goal is to raise funds for the needs of the Third Separate Assault Brigade. After all, this is a people's war. Providing volunteers (truth is nowhere children) for individual units is often almost decisive. In others, it is auxiliary. And for us - Ukrainians living here in the States, permanently or temporarily, this is also very important: a sense of unity, as post-war (World War II) immigrants once said, - with the people of "mainland" Ukraine. We coped with this task too. Our guests will not report to the command empty-handed. This is the merit of the spectators and organizers of the tour.

The theater was invited to New York by the public association "New Ukrainian Wave" in cooperation with the public and political organization "Ukrainian Congressional Committee of America" (UCCA).

Permission for a three-week theatrical tour to the United States was granted to two soldiers - actor Yevgeny Avdeenko and theater administrator Arkady Milkin - by the command of the Third Separate Assault Brigade.

Some episodes of our Patriotic on stage

The play begins with the words of Obadiah, “I was not born for war. I don’t know people who were born for it. In the first days at the front, I met a teacher, an IT specialist, a historian”…

The one-man play is about individual episodes of the war at the front: in dugouts, in close encounters with the enemy occupier (the actor calls them "katsaps").

One of the brightest episodes: he humorously tells how, having fallen into the hands of the enemy, he manages to escape. Having come to himself after being wounded in a captured apartment, he put on the clothes of a former resident and played his role. Having changed his speech greatly, as if he were a stutterer, he deceived the Russians, managed to escape and get to his people... The acting profession helped.

Another episode tells how our resourceful soldiers took advantage of the situation when, due to the continuous fighting with the "Katsapnya", they did not even have the opportunity to leave the dugout "for need" for more than one day... And how they accordingly filled bottles right in the dugouts (did you guess?) to block the path of the Katsapnya as they approached them. As they advanced, the bottles would open, the Horde soldiers would slip and fall... Wonderful Cossack ingenuity!

There were cases when they did not sleep for more than one day due to continuous enemy attacks, forced to rest by moving: their legs walk, their brain sleeps, and their eyes see, because they have to protect their lives... He demonstrates all this on stage.

Heroism, - "Obdiy" claims with his story, - in everyday life. When you have to wipe the shells that have been dirty since Soviet times with rags for a long time and tediously (it clearly demonstrates this)

Heroism is when not only the damned enemy exhausts the nerves, when sweat and blood are shed, when during redeployment they do not find protective structures, as they should be...

There are many biographical references from his personal life. On February 22, 2022, he was woken up by his wife because the war had begun. The touching mise-en-scene of a conversation with her, saying goodbye to his daughters, when he voluntarily went to the military registration and enlistment office, and there in a long line he met his classmate Oleg. More than once he humorously recalled his school years about this very Oleg, who became a faithful comrade... Telephone conversations from the front - his and his comrades with their wives (one of the tragedies of this war is the breakup of families). A long, sweet conversation with his mother.... The actor calls the real name of his wife, young daughters. Worldview, philosophical assessments or reflections are also interspersed in the story. Of these, for example, the last: he has a dream: he met God himself on the seashore. They recognized each other… Ovid asks his almighty counterpart to revive the fallen. No, he can’t. Then it’s easier: “Can you finally burn this fucking Moscow?” “Okay,” he replies. You just set it on fire, because I only have your hands”….

The overall impression of the performance: limited in time and limitless in meaning… They defend their own… The loyalty to the oath of the Azovites, the slogans adopted from the patriots of previous national liberation struggles: “Death to enemies!”, “Ukraine above all”! “Glory to the nation”

Here in "Svitlyny" there are photos - a link to Vasyl Shklyar's story "Black Sun" about the Azovites - people with a clear conscience, warm hearts, for whom Ukraine is above all.

Civic maturity and acting excellence

Avdiy recreates and lives the everyday life of the front before our eyes with such authenticity and strength of spirit that these almost two hours become a moment that absorbs everything in his head and soul, brought from home...

When re-watching - the same. I am sure: if I watched it a few more times - it would be the same. You live with him all these his actions or reflections, of which there are also many. Incredible acting talent. And also, in my opinion, the ideological and moral strength of a person whose name is Azovets. Avdiy left the theater, according to him, in 2021 and went to the Azovets: a trident (tattoo) of the legendary dobrobat on his arm, greeting - not with his palms, but with his elbow. When enlisting in the unit - an oath of service to the Fatherland, unconditional devotion to it: to do - despite the possibility, win or die... So, the inner essence of the actor himself for such service should be of precisely such an ideological and moral "mixture".

I watched the performance twice… And I’m not the only one. The impression is breathtaking, on the level of the “discovery of America.” Another Eureka…

That is why each performance began in different cities traditionally calmly. And ended in each auditorium with exciting thanks, the audience did not want to leave, many wanted to say something to Obadiah. He left a photo as a keepsake for hundreds of Ukrainian families here. In the final performance on April 12 at the Ukrainian Cultural Center in Whippany, New Jersey, they did not leave for a long time until they sang our "Slaven" together. And the touched owners of the Cultural Center reduced the rent by half. Thank you!

In the reviews of the performance, the audience most appreciates the fact that the war is told by a person who fought and knows what it is like to meet the enemy. Personally, I was most impressed by how much physical and intellectual strength the actor Yevgeny Avdeyenko spends, constantly temperamentally and quickly telling, changing the timbre of the story, demonstrating it with actions, emotions, reincarnation... The rhythm of the story and its demonstration is crazy. And he does all this brilliantly, possessing acting skills. He reproduces difficult and serious episodes easily, without tension. As experienced ballet or circus actors do.

It is worth adding. This story was composed and directed by Yevgeny Avdeenko and Anatoly Neyolov, director and artistic director of the Kyiv Theater "Black Square".

Initiators and organizers of the theater tour

A huge thank you to the organizers of this invitation and the volunteer provision of the production function of the two-week tour (I repeat: 10 performances in cities in six states) to Myroslava Rozdolska - the head of the public association "New Ukrainian Wave" and Iryna Borshchevska-Rozdolska - the head of the public relations department of this NGO. She is the initiator of the project, an actress, a classmate of Yevhena Avdeenko and the main curator of the theater tour.

Everything that Ms. Iryna and Ms. Myroslava have done for all of us deserves not just gratitude or applause from the audience, but something substantial from the entire Ukrainian community. This tour and meeting with our heroes took place only because the community has such a duet: the youth and mobility of Ms. Iryna plus the vast experience and leadership capabilities of Ms. Myroslava. The preparation and implementation required an unimaginably huge number of organizational, diplomatic, financial, economic, logistical, and informational issues, which it is difficult to believe in the possibility of overcoming them.

We even had to urgently prepare our sound engineer for the productions of the play in 2 days (the theater guy was not given a visa), which was successfully handled by Iryna Sakharieva, a teacher at the Ukrainian Studies School in Brooklyn, “New Wave”. She conducted all 10 productions with them.

In addition, they organized an additional meeting of the soldiers of the Third Assault Division with students from different classes of this school, where 400 Ukrainian children study (principal – Myroslava Rozdolska). These were unforgettable lessons of patriotism for the teenagers.

The Ukrainian Congressional Committee of America (UCCA) political and public organization helped organize the invitation of guests and the purchase of screens for English subtitles: Tamara Oleksiy (executive director) and Mykhailo Savkiv (chairman). They also helped organize the meeting of E. Avdeenko and A. Milkin with congressmen or their assistants in the US Congress. The guests have a list of their counterparts. They talked about everything, but mostly about weapons...

Merit for the highest award.

We take into account the theme, content, the actor's performance skills, reviews of the performance in Ukraine (about 50 performances) and the first reviews in the USA. We hope for continued visits. In particular, we recommend inviting them to the active, capable community of Chicago, and we will help with the connection. We believe that the acting work of Yevhen Avdeenko deserves the Shevchenko Prize-2025, Ukraine. Perhaps this publication will be the first application-submission to the Committee for the National Taras Shevchenko Prize, Ukraine.

Yevgeny's brother Arkady Milkin, who took on the role of administrator and lighting operator from the Third Assault Brigade, also deserves high praise.