As Russia's brutal war enters its third year since the full-scale invasion, City Garage will be presenting a staged reading of a new, full-length play from Ukrainian author and poet Valeriy Puzik “Ghosts in Branches.” This is the third in a series of readings City Garage has presented as part of the Worldwide Ukrainian Play Readings Project in support of humanitarian aid to the people of Ukraine.
About the Play: A small group of Ukrainian soldiers shelters in the remains of a hut on the front lines of the war. Some are young, some are older; they are ordinary men, who have left behind ordinary lives to do something none of them ever imagined: fight a war. In their daily struggle to survive they joke, gripe, fantasize about distant love ones, fend off boredom, hunger, loneliness, deadly shelling and drone attacks, go on night raids, and endure the constant thought of death: not if it will come, but simply when. In this haunting, beautiful piece, Ukrainian poet, writer, and filmmaker Valeriy Puzik takes a gently ironic view of deadly events: grimly comic, deeply humane, injecting lovely surreal fantasies that express a longing for peace, seeking shards of light and sources of hope in the grimmest of situations.
About the Project: The Worldwide Ukrainian Play Readings Project, organized and supervised by writer/translator John Freedman, has been raising humanitarian aid for the people of Ukraine since the full-scale invasion began. To date, there have been more than 285 performances of 110 texts by 45 writers in 35 countries and 19 languages. Attendees are asked to make a minimum donation of $10 but encouraged to give more. 100% of proceeds will be distributed to charities working on the ground in Ukraine.