Tatiana Voltskaya

Tatiana Voltskaya’s poems will premiere on the Finborough Theatre YouTube channel on Monday, 29 August 2022 at 6.00pm, and will be simultaneously available with subtitles on Scenesaver.

“Russia will be abolished. Together with Pushkin and Tolstoy.
When the smoke over Ukraine
Dissipates,
Only the ruins
Of our realm will show.”

So writes Tatiana Voltskaya – one of Russia’s leading poets, winner of the Pushkin Prize and many other awards. Since February 2022, she has in exile in Georgia where she has been writing an extraordinary series of poems about Russia’s war on Ukraine.

These war poems don’t just protest against Putin’s war – they are a lacerating condemnation of her entire country. A howl of rage and pain about what the Russian people have enabled.

Last October, whilst still in Russia, Voltskaya was officially declared a Foreign Agent for her outspoken views – the only poet ever so named. Most Russian literary voices have been silenced, but not Voltskaya’s. These powerful and courageous poems are not just the work of a great poet, but a hugely important Russian voice against the war.

“Trampling spring, squashing love,
Planting just the dead,
The monster Viy stalks Ukraine
With his giant letter Z.”

#FINBOROUGHFRONTIER
During lockdown, our acclaimed #FinboroughForFree series released monthly free-to-view archive recordings and original online content including new plays, rediscoveries, a community festival, and the Finborough Forum, our invitation-only group for theatre creatives. Our online work saw us awarded London Pub Theatres’ Award for Pub Theatre of the Year 2020, and our web series Late Night Staring At High Res Pixels won London Pub Theatres Standing Ovation Award for Best Online Theatre 2021.
We strongly believe that online work is an exciting new complement to our work, and are anxious to explore this new medium, embracing anything that can be presented digitally including film, livestream, audio, and hybrid. We are especially keen to develop digital work to increase our international engagement, and also to ensure that our work is truly available for everyone, especially those who cannot easily access our auditorium.
Since January 2022, we have continued our online work under a brand new name – #FinboroughFrontier, curated by Artistic Director Neil McPherson and Playwright-in-Residence Athena Stevens. All our online content will remain – as it was throughout lockdown – entirely free to view, and also be available in a subtitled version. Our first releases, earlier this year, were An Earls Court Miscellany, a celebration of the vivid history and personalities of Earl’s Court featuring poetry, prose and music, and filmed in the local area, and How To Make A Revolution by Einat Weizman with Issa Amro, a verbatim documentary play filmed in the UK and Hebron.

Available FREE TO VIEW on the Finborough Theatre YouTube channel #FinboroughFrontier.

#VoicesFromUkraine #Українськіголоси #Ukrayinsʹkiholosy
Previous releases in the #VoicesFromUkraine #Українськіголоси #Ukrayinsʹkiholosy include Otvetka by Neda Nezhdana, The Peed-Upon Armored Personnel Carrier by Oksana Gritsenko and A Dictionary of Emotions in a Time of War by Yelena Astasyeva, all are now available on the Finborough Theatre YouTube channel, and available with subtitles on Scenesaver.

All videos are free to view but we do ask for donations to the Voices of Children Foundation, a Ukrainian charity providing urgently needed psychological and psychosocial support to children affected by the war in Ukraine. Visit the website here.

Live productions include Two Ukrainian Plays featuring Natal’ya Vorozhbit’s Take The Rubbish Out, Sasha in a double bill with Neda Nezhdana’s monologue Pussycat in Memory of Darkness, pairing Ukraine’s leading contemporary playwright together with a Ukrainian playwright making her UK debut, playing at the Finborough Theatre until 3 September 2022.