Berezil Theatre.

About Berezil Theatre

The Berezil Theatre (1922–1933) was "the largest state-funded theatre in Soviet Ukraine." Founded by Les Kurbas, who was considered the greatest theater director of the 20th century, the avant-garde theatre troupe was named for March, the first month of spring in Ukrainian and a period identified with renewal, an approach Kurbas "intertwined with Impressionism, Symbolism, and the experimental." "The overarching goal of Berezil's productions," he said, "was the synthesis of speech, movement, gesture, music, light, and decorative art into one rhythm or simple, dramatic language, based on the belief that theatre shapes rather than reflects life." In 1920, he summarized a successful performance by saying: "There were those who cried for us. There were those who thought that only our performances made them conscious Ukrainians."