Director’s Notes

This is a love story. And like any grand, sweeping love story, our lovers are faced with grand, sweeping obstacles that challenge their fate. They are faced with modern challenges like Facebook messaging over great distances throughout a pandemic. And like the many great love stories that came before them, Matt and Masha’s story is also set against the backdrop of war.

I have been witness to Matt and Masha’s love story from the beginning. It is only fitting that these two theatrical romantics would fatefully meet through the theatre. It was at a workshop of my play Barvinok in Kyiv that Matt and Masha first met in 2018. Matt was my dramaturg, and Mariya a workshop actor. The rest is history. It was another workshop of a new play of mine titled Alina that brought Matt back to Ukraine in 2020 prior to the pandemic. At the time, I had no idea that being their third wheel would grant me a unique perspective as the future director of First Métis Man of Odesa. I also had no idea exactly how quickly and significantly our worlds would change in so many ways just a few short years later.

When Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine began on February 24, 2022, it was impossible to turn away. For so many people part of the Ukrainian diaspora, the war was and continues to be omnipresent. Mundane, routine tasks are weighted. News about it is inescapable. The cognitive dissonance of scrolling through Instagram memes followed by images of horrific Russian war crimes is an ongoing reality as the war drags on. To be part of the Ukrainian diaspora is to contend with your head and heart reeling for your loved ones in Ukraine, and striving to not fully dissociate from your safe, physical reality. As political pundits, hot takes, and ideological debates aim to dehumanize, it is more important than ever to return to stories that embrace our humanity.

This is also a love story about Ukraine. Just as Matt and Masha’s love blossomed on the cobblestone streets of Kyiv, or the ultra-romantic promenades outside the iconic Odesa Opera and Ballet Theatre, there is so much about Ukraine to fall in love with. Like any grand, sweeping love story, this one shows us that not even the greatest obstacles, like the most evil forces of war, can taint true love. Matt and Masha’s son, Ivan, is a reminder of this unbreakable spirit. Ivan is a beautiful union of two cultures whose love has created a symbol of the kind of future we are fighting for.

Слава Украïні. Все буде Украïна.

- Lianna Makuch