“Art-Drama” Theatre Studio Presented “Pygmalion”

On February 8, 2024, the “Art-Drama” theatre studio of Ternopil National Medical University made a wonderful gift to all fans of performing arts, inviting them to the premiere of the play “Pygmalion” based on the play of the same name by Bernard Shaw.

The plot is based on a well-known ancient myth about a sculptor who, having created an ideal female figure from marble, fell madly in love with her and persuaded the gods to revive the statue.

The ancient Greek romantic story was creatively reinterpreted by the famous English playwright Bernard Shaw and transferred to London at the beginning of the 20th century, where passions were played out, characters were formed, and traditional values of Victorian England were destroyed. Subtle humour, sparkling dialogues, a light, dynamic, socially and psychologically tense plot – all this ensured the play’s unfading fame for decades and a worthy place among classic dramatic works.

“Pygmalion” does not lose its popularity even in the present times and is a visiting card of many famous theatres. Therefore, the excitement of the director-producer Mariana Varvaruk and the participants of “Art-Drama”, students of our university, before the premiere was quite understandable.

Understandable, but groundless! For two hours, the audience of the hall filled to capacity, holding their breath, carefully watched the events unfolding on the stage. From time to time, the silence was broken by applause, which emphasized particularly successful moments and unexpected impromptu moments, of which there were quite a few.

There were no indifferent people in the hall! The action mesmerized, attracted, touched the innermost strings of the soul. The actors did not just speak the words of their characters or walk across the stage. They completely assumed the personalities of their characters, felt and thought, lived and spoke like the Londoners of those times. Mykhailo Buchynskyi was the narcissistic, unceremonious and harsh professor Henry Higgins, Anna Chernous was the naive London girl Eliza Doolittle, who turned into a passionate, gentle and self-sufficient lady. The delicate Colonel Pickering (Orest Stepaniuk) with his constant pipe, who remained a gentleman in the most difficult situations, perfectly complemented the duet. The image of the calm and thoughtful Mrs. Higgins was convincingly created by Solomia Vrublevska. The duet of Mrs. Pearce and Charlotte Pearce (Viktoria Zelena and Diana Burdiak) was very well received by the audience. And although in the author’s version, the housekeeper of Mr. Henry Higgins is a lonely woman, this director’s version of the “girl with pepper”, according to Mariana Varvaruk, is undoubtedly an interesting creative find and quite organically weaves into the overall plot of the story.

The play of the quartet of the Eynsford-Hill family was coherent and pleasant, where everyone clearly adhered to their roles (Mrs. Eynsford-Hill – Maria Usova, Clara Eynsford-Hill – Solomia Madarash, Elizabeth Eynsford-Hill – Oksana Dydyk, Freddy Eynsford-Hill – Anton Shupa). The haughty and extravagant duchess and her friend were interestingly played by Diana Klots and Anastasia Kolesnykova. Alfred Doolittle (Illia Sorokivskyi), Eliza’s clumsy father, made the audience smile slyly and expect comical situations with just his appearance on the stage. The role played by Nazar Krasytskyi complemented the acting ensemble and deservedly won the hearts of the audience.

And it does not matter that the actors are wearing jackets and jeans, that their partners on the stage are dressed in modern fashionable dresses, and Mr. Higgins and Eliza are dancing to the sounds of rock music. In front of the audience is not just a sweet sentimental story of the transformation of a street flower girl into a lady (something like a fairy tale about Cinderella), but a dramatic, comic (sometimes ironic) story about the birth of a new human personality, a woman who not only begins to realize her attractiveness, but also their human dignity, their right to be themselves.

Talented team play captivates from the first phrases and does not let go until the last musical chords. All participants of the “Art-Drama” theatre studio are involved in the play. As Mariana Varvaruk said, while preparing for the premiere, they worked diligently for almost four months, because they wanted to stage something interesting and unique from the world classics for a long time, so they warmly supported the version with Bernard Shaw’s play. Thanks to the creativity of the director-producer, all the characters (even minor ones or created by her creative imagination) became full-fledged, expressive and true to life in the performance of young actors.

We would like to say a few words about the scenery separately, quoting Mariana Varvaruk: “With the scenery, we decided to keep it as simple as possible, so as not to cause ourselves problems, but… to simplify everything. We found most of them at our university, where, like everywhere, there are beautiful tables, chairs… Small things were brought from home. There is a piano in our assembly hall. And flower pots were collected in all offices. Everything can be found on site. And it’s very cool! There are sofas… Everything can be found at our university, and there is no point in taking decorations somewhere. Everything we need we can find here. We borrowed for 2-3 days, and then dutifully returned it (laughs).”

… There were only a few hours left until the premiere… And the director-producer already had new plans, interesting projects, original ideas.

Also, we would like to thank all the participants of the “Art-Drama” theatre studio and their leader for a wonderful premiere and wish them new creative accomplishments!

The information was provided by Ihor Havryshchak.

Photographs by Mykola Vasylechko.