Real-life love/war story on stage

First Métis Man of Odesa will be at Soulpepper Theatre in May 2024.

https://www.soulpepper.ca/ performances/firstmetisman

Punctuate Theatre (produc­tion co): https://www.punctua­tetheatre.com/

Photos courtesy Alexis McKeown

Source: The Bridge Community News

Author of the Article: Winnie Czulinski

Hearts and flowers are a part of it. But this love story also draws on the deaths and devastated landscapes of the Russian inva­sion of Ukraine, plus the pan­demic that gripped the world with illness and isolation.

Closed doors, cultural differ­ences, desperate measures. A romance, a pregnancy, a wed­ding. Even the bride’s moth­er living and touring with the young husband and wife. And much laughter.

The play reflecting this sto­ry, through the real-life cou­ple of Métis-Canadian play­wright Matthew MacKenzie and Ukrainian actor Mariya Khomutova, has captivated Canada. In 2023, First Métis Man of Odesa, a triple Dora Mavor Moore award-winner, played to appreciative audienc­es in 96 performances and six cities, with rave reviews.

The married duo, who now live in Cabbagetown, met while MacKenzie was engaged in workshops and theatre research in Kyiv, Ukraine, in 2018. English-speaking hired actor Khomutova noted that this ac­complished theatre person was “my size and height, often si­lent, observed a lot, and not out to make an impression.”