(Myroslava Makarevych’s article appeared in the Kyiv Post, 9/6/26; Photo: Destruction of the theater as a result of enemy shelling. (Credit via the M. Kulish Kherson Regional Academic Music and Drama Theater.) The 28th Melpomena Tavrii International Theatre Festival will take place Sept. 12–19 under its longstanding motto, #TheaterWhereWeAre. Despite Russia’s war, the festival will return to Kherson, with performances also staged in Mykolaiv and at participating theaters across Ukraine.
Founded in 1999, Melpomena Tavrii has presented 610 productions by around 230 theaters from more than 100 cities and more than 20 countries.
Kyiv Post spoke with festival president and artistic director of the Mykola Kulish Kherson Theatre Oleksandr Knyha about why the festival continues in one of Ukraine’s most dangerous cities, what theater means to Kherson residents today and why keeping the stage alive has become an act of resistance.
Oleksandr Knyha. (Photo via the M. Kulish Kherson Regional Academic Music and Drama Theater)
Kyiv Post: Melpomena Tavrii continues despite the war, and in extremely difficult conditions. Why is it so important to keep the festival in Kherson?
Oleksandr Knyha: In 2022, after we escaped occupied Kherson, I wrote on social media: “Melpomena will definitely take place in Ukrainian Kherson. Despite everything!”
As soon as the city was liberated, we returned and began restoring the theater. Our team was scattered across Ukraine and Europe, while some people remained in occupied Kherson. We created a format that allowed our friends to participate and, most importantly, helped us tell the world what was happening in our city.
The theater itself has been badly damaged. How do you work under these conditions?
We no longer work in our theater building because it is in a red zone. It has been heavily damaged and shelled, and we are trying to save it. Practically no windows remain. The roof is badly damaged.
On March 8, 2026, a rocket from a multiple-launch rocket system hit the theater roof. Had it landed about 10 centimeters higher, it would have hit the auditorium.
The team told me, “Let’s cancel the program. Nobody will come.”
I said, “No. We won’t cancel it. Even if one person comes, it will be therapy for that person.”
And the auditorium was full.
It turned out that even being destroyed, even having bombs falling around us, is not enough to stop us. We are needed.
People come to us like to a source – to drink healing water and keep going.
The play “D.I.M.” (Photo via the M. Kulish Kherson Regional Academic Music and Drama Theater)
So theater has become a form of psychological support?
Yes. I don’t want to use overly grand words, but it really is a mission. It is our duty and our responsibility to people.
