“You know that you are a human being…” (Vasyl’ Symonenko): Serhiy Danchenko’s directorship at the Lviv Theatre named after Maria Zankovetska in 1965–1966

Abstract

The article is dedicated to the early period in the professional career of outstanding Ukrainian theatre director Serhiy Volodymyrovich Danchenko (1937–2001). The main attention is paid to the very first performances staged by Danchenko at the Lviv Theatre namedafter Maria Zankovetska in 1965–1966. These include the debut performance ‘The First Day of Freedom’ based on a play by Polish playwrightLeon Kruchkovsky as well as stage versions of such dramas as ‘The Widower’ by Aleksander Shtein, ‘Man Overboard’ by Arkadiy Shkol’nikand ‘On the Road’ by Viktor Rozov. Based on memoirs, press critiques and documentary materials, namely the minutes of the Theatre Arts Council’s meetings, the author reconstructs the circumstances in which the work on the performances was undergoing, discusses the peculiarities of how the actors were interpreting their roles as well as the reception by critics and spectators. The article emphasizes the conceptual approach employed by the director and makes generalisations about the consonance of themes and issues in three plays. The principled research aspect of the article is that Danchenko’s performances are examined in the context of the shestydesiatnyky (sixtiers) movement. For the first time in the domestic art studies, it is argued that Danchenko’s productions of that period can be related, by theiraesthetic and substantive characteristics, to the phenomenon of the shestydesiatnyky art. This makes it possible to talk about a collective action by shestydesiatnyky taking as an example the works created in the Lviv Theatre named after Maria Zankovetska.