When the Hurlyburly’s Done
Price range: $12.95 through $15.00
Description
In 1920, thirty-two-year-old Les Kurbas (the founder of the modern Ukrainian theatre), takes a group of young actors out of war-torn Kyiv into the countryside where they will perform plays, bartering tickets for food. One such play is MACBETH, the first Shakespeare production ever in Ukrainian. While Kurbas and most of the company attend a show by a local theater company performed in their honor, six young women, four actresses, a pianist, and a dancer stay behind with their children. Over a meal which they cook from the proceeds of that evening’s show, the young women talk, complain, joke, make fun of themselves, laugh, rehearse dances from the show, all while in pain, heartbroken, lost, scared, and with a need to be together.
Production Info
Full Length Drama (about 110 minutes)
Minimal Set Requirements
Period Costumes
Press Quotes
“Somewhere before the finale, you suddenly say to yourself: no, I’m not going to cry, because there was nothing that usually makes people cry in the theater. Meanwhile, your tears, which you have no control over, rise from the bottom of your soul like air bubbles from a goldfish tank.” —Theater Magazine, Ukraine
“September 1920. A small Ukrainian village, where the war still echoes in people’s hearts, and fear and instability have become part of everyday life. It is here, far from the big city, that a story filled with drama, tenderness, and inner strength is born. A story that took place against the backdrop of the first production of MACBETH in Ukrainian in Ukraine … WHEN THE HURLYBURLY’S DONE is not just a reconstruction of events from a century ago. It is a play about community, female resilience, and how theater can be not only a stage but also a home. It is an intimate conversation about the price of creativity during times of destruction, about the internal storms we have to endure when the outside world is going mad.” —Rest. Kyiv, Ukraine
“Let’s be honest — we couldn’t write this review for two months. And it’s not that we have any excuse. We just couldn’t find the words. You literally can’t describe what you feel, and you leave the theater in a daze, with round and teary eyes. The performance is paralyzing. And we’re not afraid to use big words — this is one of the plays that has emotionally affected us the most recently.” —Medium, Ostap Theatere
Author
Richard NelsonRichard Nelson's plays include the four-play series, THE APPLE FAMILY (THAT HOPEY CHANGEY THING, SWEET AND SAD, SORRY, REGULAR SINGING (Nominated for Outstanding Play in Drama Desk Awards 2014; Public Theater, 2010 – 2013), NIKOLAI AND THE OTHERS (Lincoln Center Theater, 2013), FAREWELL TO THE THEATRE (Hampstead Theatre, 2012), HOW SHAKESPEARE WON THE WEST, (Huntington Theater, 2008), CONVERSATIONS AT TUSCULUM (Public Theater, 2008), FRANK'S HOME (Goodman Chicago, Playwrights Horizons, 2007), RODNEY'S WIFE (Playwrights Horizons, 2004), WHERE I COME FROM (National Theatre Connections), MADAME MELVILLE (which ran in the West End starring Macaulay Culkin and Irene Jacob and opened in May 2001 Off-Broadway); GOODNIGHT CHILDREN EVERYWHERE (winner of Olivier Award for Best New Play, 2000), KENNETH'S FIRST PLAY (with Colin Chambers, RSC), THE GENERAL FROM AMERICA (at the RSC and the Lucille Lortel Theatre, New York), NEW ENGLAND (RSC and Manhattan Theater Club), MISHA'S PARTY (with Alexander Gelman, RSC and Williamstown Theater Festival), TWO SHAKESPEAREAN ACTORS (Tony nomination for Best Play, RSC and Broadway), COLUMBUS AND THE DISCOVERY OF JAPAN (RSC Barbican), SOME AMERICANS ABROAD (Olivier nomination, Best Comedy; RSC, Lincoln Center and Broadway), LEFT, BETWEEN EAST AND WEST (Hampstead), PRINCIPIA SCRIPTORAE (winner of Time Out Award, RSC and Manhattan Theater Club), THE RETURN OF PINOCCHIO, AN AMERICAN COMEDY, BAL, CONJURING AN EVENT, RIP VAN WINKLE, JUNGLE COUP, THE KILLING OF YABLONSKI, THE VIENNA NOTES (Obie Award). His musicals include JAMES JOYCE'S THE DEAD (starring Christopher Walken and Blair Brown; Playwrights Horizons, Belasco Theatre, Broadway, Ahmanson Theatre, Los Angeles, Kennedy Center, Washington; for which he received a Tony Award in 2000 for Best Musical Book), CHESS (the book for the Broadway musical), PARADISE FOUND (dir: Harold Prince and Susan Strohman), MY LIFE WITH ALBERTINE (with Ricky Ian Gordon; Playwrights Horizons), UNFINISHED PIECE FOR A PLAYER PIANO (with Peter Golub). His translations and adaptations include TYNAN starring Corin Redgrave (with Colin Chambers, RSC and West End), LOLITA with Brian Cox (National), Molnar's THE GUARDSMAN (Kennedy Center), Carriere's THE CONTROVERSY (Public Theater), Fo's ACCIDENTAL DEATH OF AN ANARCHIST (Broadway), Strindberg's THE FATHER with Frank Langella (Broadway) and MISS JULIE (Yale Rep), Beaumarchais' THE MARRIAGE OF FIGARO (the Guthrie and Broadway); Molière's DON JUAN, Ibsen's WILD DUCK and ENEMY OF THE PEOPLE, Pirandello's ENRICO IV, Goldoni's IL CAMPIELLO, Erdmann's THE SUICIDE. With the esteemed translators Richard Pevear and Larissa Volokhonsky, he was co-translated Chekhov's THE CHERRY ORCHARD, Gogol's THE INSPECTOR, Turgenev's A MONTH IN THE COUNTRY and Bulgakov's DON QUIXOTE. Films: Hyde Park on Hudson, staring Bill Murray and Laura Linney (Dir: Roger Michell), Ethan Frome, starring Liam Neeson (Dir: John Madden); Sensibility and Sense, staring Elaine Stritch and Jean Simmons (Dir: David Jones). Television: The End of a Sentence with Edward Herrmann (Dir: David Jones). Radio Plays include: HYDE PARK ON HUDSON, LANGUAGES SPOKEN HERE (Giles Cooper Award), EATING WORDS (Giles Cooper Award), ADVICE TO EASTERN EUROPE, AN AMERICAN WIFE (all BBC).
Book Information
| Publisher | BPPI |
|---|---|
| Publication Date | 8/21/2025 |
| Pages | 96 |
| ISBN | 9798888560587 |
Special Notes
by special arrangement with Broadway Play Publishing Inc, NYC
www.broadwayplaypublishing.com
