In war-weary Kyiv, wounded Ukrainian veterans turn epic poetry into living testimony

War veterans with severe injuries from Russia’s invasion of Ukraine have taken the stage in Kyiv in an adaptation of Ivan Kotliarevskyi’s “Eneida.”

KYIV, Ukraine -- Sitting in a circle the day before opening night, Ukrainian war veterans and drama students took turns reading their lines from a script that traveled centuries to reach them.

At the center was Olha Semioshkina, directing the group through her adaptation of “Eneida” by Ivan Kotliarevskyi — an 18th-century Ukrainian reimagining of Virgil's “Aeneid.” This production, though, had a modern-day message about resilience in the face of the war that's nearing its fourth year since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

The actors — men and women in their 20s to 60s — included Ukrainian military veterans who had returned from the front with amputations, severe burns and sight loss. Others had endured war on the homefront. Many had never set foot on a stage before this play.

It took more than a year to prepare for Thursday’s premiere at Kyiv’s National Academic Molodyy Theatre.

“We knew the guys had just come back from rehabilitation, and we had to start from the very beginning,” Semioshkina said.