In the new performance of the Ivano-Frankivsk Drama Theater based on the novel by Lina Kostenko “Marusya Churay”, the cult work of the famous Ukrainian poetess acquires real ancient power. Perhaps thanks to the synthesis of the efforts of Rostislav Derzhipilsky, Svyatoslav Vakarchuk, Natalya Polovinka, Oles Sanin and the theater troupe. Perhaps the novel itself was a work of antique level - it’s just that when I read it in my youth, for me the events of the book developed, so to speak, in a natural way: the love of Marusya and Gritsko, death, trial, sentence - and pardon from the hetman, writes Vitaly Portnikov for the publication "

The following is the text in the original language. And just at the exposition in Ivano-Frankivsk, I was reluctant to realize that the pardon was not a major development of the idea, but that the very appearance of the hetman was the classic ancient technique of the appearance of “God from the Machine,” if in a situation like. Bogdan Khmelnytsky and who was such a “god of the machine” in the novel by Lina Kostenko – the author set it in Ivano-Frankivsk. Aje prem? At the theater Oleksiy Gnatkovsky, who plays the hetman, never appears on stage. He turns to the spectators - and to the trials near Poltava - from the majestic screen above the stage and in such a manner demonstrates his hetman’s will. The righteous god and the servant of justice! Well, and the warrior Marusya Churay.

The authors of great dramas - from Eschylus to Lenus - went to the idea of \u200b\u200b\u200b\u200ba " They wanted to confirm in our information the very idea of \u200b\u200bimminent justice - justice that necessarily triumphs, for which there are no objective minds. The writer understands that as people will believe in justice, this justice will be violated - with or without gods and hetmans.

That’s why it’s so surprising that I, having developed this image of the Ukrainian “god from the machine”, would have seemed to the world to have devalued the very concept of justice, and we no longer count on miracles from those who could create them. We fear that the president of the largest democratic region in the world today claims that he does not need justice and is based on dictators. We are grasping at straws for the first and last challenge, and we are still grasping at the opportunity to cross over while justice still prevails. Even after visiting Frankivska, I marveled at the proclamation of the British monarch in the American Congress - and realized that the main strength of Charles III ahead of us lies in the fact that from the truisms that he voted with the highest. So the king for a long time also became “the god of the machine”, not only the one who can change in our life, but the one who can categorically confirm that justice and truth will emerge – and will not be confused with. For our time it was too late.

We are not the first generation in the history of mankind to live during the period of the killing of the gods and the lack of justice. Let us also remember that all efforts to nullify justice and honesty will soon and painfully end in a catastrophic defeat for those who intend to block the very sense of human desire. But those who do not believe in justice and transformations in the triumph of force (or will, as the name of the famous Nazi film by Lena Riefenstahl) may collapse, rather than build. The building obіtsyat, but not the building vyconati. You can achieve tactical victories and win elections - but never again recognize strategic defeats from those who support you.

And all to the fact that “God is in the machines” is not at all the guess of a person at a desk. This is the law of life.