'The audience cried hearing Ukrainian songs at our show'

When Dara Klymenko arrived in Yorkshire after escaping the war in Ukraine she had no idea whether she'd have to give up her love for the theatre.

The 26-year-old professional actress moved in with a host family in Malton in 2022 and began working at a nursery, but found she "couldn't live" without the creative arts.

Now Ms Klymenko is the founder and director of DSpace, a Ukrainian theatre group which performed at this year's York International Shakespeare Festival.

"I was amazed at how many people were interested. The main goal is to create a safe and inspiring space for self-expression. I call it a space of inspiration," she said.

DSpace members span a wide range of ages - from primary school children to adults - and all are Ukrainians.

Ms Klymenko had previously taught drama workshops to children, and decided to launch a similar venture in York, teaching classes in her native language.

She said she was "amazed" by the uptake and by the amount of Ukrainian nationals living around her, but struggled to find a suitable venue to host the classes.

Around the same time, she was invited to take part in Working Title, a project which united actors from national theatre companies in Ukraine with UK artist

Through this, she was introduced to David Richmond, senior lecturer of drama and theatre at York St John University, who offered a free space to rehearse at the city centre campus.

Mr Richmond said: "The university has a policy of social justice and the creative arts have led on that for many years.

"We want to the support the Ukrainian community's creativity and expression and feeling of security and belonging.

"Dara is doing such good work in her community and in theatre so it seemed [providing space was] the ideal thing we could do to help, the ideal thing they need which is space and time to tell their stories in the way they want to tell them."

The group rehearses for three hours each Monday evening and members travel from York, Selby and the surrounding area to attend.

While some members are beginners, others have previous acting experience, often from their life in Ukraine before the war.

Sergi, 25, had completed his theatre degree at university and had started to secure some jobs before he moved to the UK.

He explained that finding a theatre company that spoke his native language was important as it helped him find common interest in shared experiences.

"Because we are all people from one country, we have the same traditions, the same culture so it's easy to communicate so I'm happy to do this with Ukrainian people," he said.

"Sometimes it's difficult because of language. Most projects are looking for native speakers. But the York Shakespeare Festival was a new experience for me in theatre, and I was happy in the same way to act with Ukrainian and English people, and it was easy to connect."

The play DSpace performed at the festival was called There's No Clock in The Forest, an original blend of Shakespeare texts and the Ukrainian play Mavka (the Forest Song).

"For us it was a huge success – we had lots of audience members, from Ukraine and also from England as well," Ms Klymenko explained.

"Some people from the audience told me they started crying during the performance. Not because of the show but because they heard Ukrainian language, Ukrainian songs and it was so sensitive for them."

The theatre group will be tackling another deeply personal project next - a new play, partially inspired by the Hollywood film La La Land, written by Ms Klymenko herself.

Her hope is that the theme can resonate, particularly with Ukrainian people, "to never give up" on their dreams.

"It was very important to me when I created [DSpace] that it was a safe space – it's about mental health as well, a place to express your feelings," she added.

"I realised I've got to keep doing this, because I need it, my team need it and the audience needs it."

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