In a basement in Bakhmut, Alina Sarnatska slept an average of two hours a night. After researching gender-based violence at Kiev University, she suddenly found herself having to measure blood pressure, control fever and treat colds and acute illnesses such as appendicitis.
– It was a very strange experience. Many people are afraid of not being sufficiently educated, including working people. I became a nurse overnight and didn’t know anything about it.
Sarnatska was helped by a gynecologist in Lviv, over a thousand kilometers away, who answered her questions around the clock.
One day a lawyer heard it She came alone from her university in Kiev and asked her to sign a document about training. She signed with the black pen she found and asked her supervisor to mail the letter.
– When they received the document, I was told that I had to sign with a blue pen. I said, “You’re crazy, I don’t have a blue pen here.” But they insisted. It was a military operation to get that blue pen.
These parallel realities – waging war while living everyday life – are presented in her first piece, “Military Mom.”
– My main character, like me, gets a call about something that concerns her kids at school, like something that needs to be filled out with a blue pen.
Documented on the front She fights against the war by sharing dialogues between people on social media to raise money for her association. A woman from the Theater of Veterans in Kiev, who saw her writing, urged her to apply there.
Founded and directed by playwright Maksym Kurochkin, the program helps soldiers and veterans transform war experiences into performing arts.
– And I asked, but why? I knew nothing about theater and thought it was something Shakespeare did and he died a long time ago.
The play “Military Mom” became one of the most famous contributions and was performed at the Left Bank Theater in Kiev.
DN met Alina Sarnatska in connection with her visit to Dramaten in Stockholm to read an excerpt from the play.
It’s about a woman’s experienceR in the Army and touches on topics such as motherhood, sexism, breakups, mental illness and desertion. The main focus is on the conflict that many mothers are torn between: caring for their children and protecting them from war.
– I think that all Ukrainians who joined the army did so out of love for something or someone. The women do it because they love their children and want to protect them.
According to Sarnatska, it is common for mothers who come forward to be shamed and called bad mothers on social media, often by men who themselves are afraid of joining the army.
– They think these women have more power than them.
For Sarnatska, theater is not therapy – it is a force for change.
– I want to make theater more political to raise awareness. Because who knows, in the worst case scenario, Russia attacks one of the Baltic countries this spring, and I think your artists need to talk to people about the war.
According to Sarnatska, the outside world needs to take the war more seriously.
– I don’t want any graduate student or social worker in your country to have to join the army overnight and become a nurse.
Alina Sarnatska
Born 1987 in Ukraine.
Operation as Playwright, author, war veteran and doctor of social work, lives in Kiev.
Debuted as a playwright for Military Mom (2024) and has since written several plays for Ukrainian stages.
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