A Ukrainian woman + a Métis man + a Russian invasion

Alexis McKeown Photo

Mariya Khomutova and Matthew MacKenzie, who met in Kyiv in 2018, perform in First Métis Man of Odesa, which runs until November 18.

Source: Winnipeg Free Press

Author of the article: Ben Waldman

Playwright and actress explore wartime romance

Matthew MacKenzie and Mariya Khomutova met onstage in a soon-to-be combat zone, which might explain why the timeline of their love story reads like the table of contents in an epic wartime novel.

In October 2018, MacKenzie, a Métis playwright, travelled to Kyiv to serve as dramaturge on Barvinok, a production inspired by personal accounts from Ukrainian citizens during the Second World War, amid the earliest rumblings of a full-on Russian invasion. Khomutova, an Odesan actor, was in the cast.

“My impression was that Matthew wasn’t like a typical theatre-maker,” Khomutova says. “Because, usually, people who do theatre are very self-involved, speaking about what they’ve achieved, what they’ve worked on.”