The Vaclav Havel Center (New York) presented a documentary theatre performance by the Yara Arts Group "Mariupol: War Diaries and the Tree of Life".
In the performance, American filmmaker of Ukrainian descent Virlana Tkach presents four diaries collected by cultural activist Daria Kolomiets for her project Diary of War. These diaries are the memoirs of real Ukrainians who survived the siege of the city of Mariupol by Russian troops.
One of the diaries belongs to Yaroslav Semenenko, a member of the Ukrainian Paralympic swimming team. The diary describes his memories of three weeks with his wife in Mariupol under bombardment. Another diary, by Mariupol policewoman Yevhenia Ivanchenko, describes the difficulties of law enforcement during the war and her birthday under fire.
Olena Nikulina wrote a diary while she was pregnant, describing the suffering of her husband, Maksym, who defended Azovstal and is now a prisoner of war in Russia.
Another protagonist, Valeria Mikhailovskaya, who was working in the Czech Republic, decided to return to Mariupol to save her mother, and her diary tells of this emotional journey.
In an artistic way, the play opens up to Americans the real events in Ukraine. The play also included poems by the famous Ukrainian musician and writer Serhiy Zhadan and the poet Victoria Amelina, who was killed in a rocket attack in Kramatorsk.