CU Theater, Ireland’s first Ukrainian theatre, presented performative readings of two contemporary Ukrainian plays at the Graduates Memorial Building, Trinity College Dublin, on 11 September. Sixty-five people attended, the majority of them Irish, including members of Irish PEN and a representative of the Embassy of Ukraine in Ireland. The evening raised €650, all of which goes to Leleka Foundation.
The programme paired The Woman with the Fridge by Marta Shyiko with Victoria’s Little Secrets by Alina Sarnatska. Both texts were read in English.
The Woman with the Fridge is a funny and clever story about love and memory — a play about relationships in which we don’t rid ourselves of our burdens but hide inside them, hand them to other people, and use them as a reason to do nothing. At its centre is a woman who has lost herself in what society expects of her, and beside her a man who holds tightly to his mother. The reading featured Yevheniia Podlypenko in the lead role, with Ihor Kokoshko, Daniel Mac Rothaich, Vladyslav Trushkovskyi and Elina Herasymchuk.
Victoria’s Little Secrets (2026) is a dark comedy about a Ukrainian woman who runs a taxidermy YouTube channel, arranging bones with the unhurried care of a florist. It was read by Katerina Achliopa and Daniel Mac Rothaich, both students at Trinity College Dublin.
Alina Sarnatska took audience questions after the readings. Attendees remarked on the realism of the dialogue in both texts.
“Two Irish people came up to me after the event and asked me about the work of frontline medics,” Sarnatska said. “They told me they had never thought about the fact that these are former civilians. And now they want to donate and support Ukraine and medics”
Alina Sarnatska is a writer, playwright, war veteran, and member of PEN Ukraine. Her work explores cultural resilience and resistance to disinformation during wartime, and has been staged in Ukraine, Sweden, Germany, the USA, and Poland.
Marta Shyiko is a Ukrainian journalist, Slavic philologist and writer. She studied at the School of Journalism and Communications at the Ukrainian Catholic University and is a finalist of the Propysy playwriting festival. Her husband was killed in the war.
The readings were directed and organized by Elina Herasymchuk, a Ukrainian theatre director, filmmaker based in Dublin, and the founder of CU Theater. Her work returns to memory, displacement and collective resilience, and she also makes documentary and experimental film. A recent Trinity College Dublin Film graduate, she works across Ireland’s artistic and humanitarian sectors.
“Our core actors are Ukrainians, but I always invite a few internationals. It matters to me that they join our circle, make Ukrainian friends, and grow closer to the characters they play. While working on their roles, they learn our history, our city names, and why Russian transliteration should never be used,” Herasymchuk said, “At a time when Russians are destroying our books and entire publishing houses, we bring foreigners into the world of Ukrainian texts
The event was supported by the Ukrainian Cultural Centre in Ireland.