Patriarchal relationships between people resemble colonial relationships between countries. Someone may see another as attractive, yet weak and not intelligent enough to determine her own life. Someone always keeps a “strong hand” at the ready — to show how to behave, which profession to choose, which union to enter, and when. Rebellion against this type of relationship promises freedom, which is precisely why those who wield the “strong hand” fear it.

The performance features music by the artist DONBASGRL, including instrumental versions of the songs Heritage and Emancipation, as well as excerpts from the novel Fieldwork in Ukrainian Sex by Oksana Zabuzhko and the novel A Woman’s Story by Annie Ernaux.

Dramaturg — Julia Redder
Director and Author of the text — Malin Victoria Kraus
Research — Leonard Hennersdorf
Dramaturgical journalist — Marvin Wittiber
Set and Costume Designer — Anna Shartamann
Sound designer and Composer — Sviatoslav Iliichuk
Lighting Designers — Yevhenii Petrov

Cast: Leon Brueger/ Volodymyr Levinets, Vira Hanchar, Louise Deborah Daberkow, Yana
Kolodiichuk, Nataliia Mazur

Premiere — November 22, 2025 р

With the support of the Allianz Ukrainischer Organisationen and under the patronage of the City of Frankfurt am Main. The project is funded through donations via the Webmen platform and by the
Goethe-Institut in Kyiv.