‘Crimea 5am’ — stories of Crimean political prisoners will be heard in London

Crimea 5аm is a documentary performance, drawing on the literary work of Ukrainian authors Natalia Vorozhbyt and Anastasiia Kosodii, and directed by Josephine Burton.

Through personal stories and testimonies of love and struggle in Crimea today, the play focuses on the record of human rights violations in the Crimean Peninsula since the unlawful Russian temporary occupation. Since 2014, civil activists and in particular representatives of the indigenous people of the Crimean peninsula, Crimean Tatars, have been persecuted by Russian occupying forces. Watch the trailer.

Combining victim and activist interviews, stories of 11 political prisoners, civil journalists, and their families, Crimea, 5am recasts vital issues of justice and cultural liberty. This moving verbatim play, drawn from interviews and testimony, tells this story largely through a female perspective. We hear from the wives of the political prisoners, of their lives, friendships and love affairs, and particularly the extraordinary way that they have kept their households together, drawing comfort and support from their tight-knit female community and how they have been empowered and changed through the experience. 

A cast of performers including Laura Hanna (The Globe, Almeida, Royal Court), Laila Alj (The Globe, RSC), and Waleed Elgadi (RSC, BBC, Netflix), and activists and journalists including writer and Byline Times co-founder and editor Peter Jukes, Ukrainian journalist and campaigner Maria Romanenko, and Byline writer and former UK diplomat and Ambassador Alexandra Hall, will stage a reading of Crimea 5am in the UK at Kiln Cinema, followed by a post-show chat co-hosted by Martin Bright, Editor-at-Large at Index on Censorship (speakers to be announced shortly).

Free entrance

To register follow the The Kiln Theatre website. 

This one-night-only performance is part of the British Council and the Ukrainian Institute UK/Ukraine Season of Culture, is produced by Dash Arts, supported in kind by Kiln Theatre.

The original production of Crimea, 5аm was initiated by the Ukrainian Institute and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine as part of the Crimea Platform. The original performance was directed by Dmytro Kostiumynskyi and produced by Dollmen.