Art of Courage | Sophia Hodych & PIP Theatre
Created, co-directed and co-written by Sophia Hodych, Art of Courage transforms PIP Theatre into a various recreation of war-time Ukraine, including characters’ living rooms, theatres and bunkers. The war in Ukraine is naturally a sensitive topic, as this is a contemporary real-life even that has affected, and continues to affect, the lives of millions of people.
Image of Executed Renaissance: From left to right: Dimitri Politis, Matthew Filkins, Byron Lankester Howells assume the roles of 3 theatre makers from the 1930's crafting a play. Image supplied.
Art of Courage captures the stories of the refugees, soldiers, displaced people, families, rebels, and so many more who have been impacted by this tragic event. And while it does a commendable job giving a voice to these people through representing their stories and their culture, it struggles with elements of its execution.
As is commonplace with immersive theatre, Art of Courage has the audience start out in a single location, in this case, the main performance area of PIP Theatre. (We were seated right at the back for this introductory scene, which meant we had sightline issues that cut off the top of the projections being displayed on the back wall.) After an air-raid siren sounds, we were whisked away to the inner rooms, corridors, and outdoor deck of PIP Theatre, where the “choose-your-own-adventure” aspect of The Art of Courage really came into effect.
Given this non-linear approach to its storytelling, it could be difficult to attach oneself to a single storyline at any given time, but once settling into some of these vignettes, there were genuine emotional moments peering into these lives. Hearing a phone call held between two performers in two adjacent rooms as they feared over the wellbeing of their homeland or watching a optimistic rebellion quickly and tragically become undone had a profound impact. This was bolstered by strong set design evoking both the chaos and the humanity of this horrible situation, even if the spaces themselves were often too small to comfortably hold the number of audience members.
BACKROW: Matthew Filkins, Dimitri Politis, Megan Dale, Sofia Viegas, Brigitte Freeme, Liam Wallis FRONT ROW: Byron Lankester Howells, Mackenzie Curtis. Conveying some character relationships as they don the costumes of their character, army gear or traditional vyshyvanka. Image supplied.
While the ensemble engaged with the emotions of the text, I do wish there was more care made to immerse us in this time and place. That’s not to say they needed to talk with Ukrainian accents, but the cadence and pitch of the voices often sounded too inner-city Brisbane and less eastern European. This created a dissonance between the authenticity of the show and its presentation, which was not what I imagine the creators wanted to achieve. This is where hiring an accent coach would have benefited the production immensely. With further creative developments, this work has the potential to strike the poignancy it is so striving to achieve.
