It’s been well over a year since Russia’s initial invasion of Ukraine in February of 2022. Though news of the war may now feel distant for those outside of Ukraine and Russia, it remains close and personal for many refugees.
One Ukrainian refugee, Sasha Denisova, is a celebrated playwright and director who has continued to make art since fleeing to Poland at the onset of the war. Denisova’s most recent theatrical work is “The Gaaga,” a “site specific phantasmagoria” that premieres in the U.S. in June, incorporating humor, tragedy, and political commentary to express the toll of war.
“The Gaaga” centers on the hopeful imagination of a young Ukrainian girl who dreams of Vladimir Putin and his allies facing a trial for war crimes. The play takes place in the bomb shelter where this 17-year-old has found refuge, though the scenes that play out depict her unlimited imagination.
“I’m really into merging the documented reality — the real facts, something that already exists — with fiction and science fiction,” Denisova said in an interview with The Harvard Crimson, translated by actress and colleague Darya Denisova.
To perfect this merging, Denisova spent long periods of time researching the speeches of Putin and other government officials to make their dialogue as realistic as possible. Additionally, Denisova incorporates facts into political fiction when she writes that Putin and others are placed in The Hague Penitentiary Institution, a real prison operated by the International Criminal Court. Hague is pronounced “gaaga” in Russian, thus serving as the play’s namesake. Denisova added that this purposefully corresponds with most babies’ first verbal sound.
“It gives us a picture of today’s Putin, who’s killing innocent people, children, civilians in general on a daily basis,” Denisova said, discussing the production’s greater purpose. “Now, there’s this image in front of us of Putin in misery being in prison already, and this closing of this entire horror is relatively close.”
Through this creative combination of reality and imagination, the crimes and horrors of those responsible for the war in Ukraine are laid out in a digestible manner. In fact, Denisova deliberately gave “The Gaaga” a comedic edge as a way to ease tension and prepare the audience to take in gruesome details.
“As a Ukrainian, I find it very important to keep talking about the genocide that is happening in Ukraine right now. But also for many of the people, it’s difficult to take more and more tragic information on a daily basis, so by making it a comedy, we find somewhat of a relief,” Denisova said.
Denisova does not only incorporate satirical humor through the story’s premise, but also in its details. For example, she includes dialogue surrounding a former KGB officer’s strong belief that Canadian geese have been…