«Women in the Dark»: Premiere in Frankfurt
A blacked-out Kyiv comes to life on a German stage — through the stories of 17 Ukrainian women documented by playwrights Iryna Serebriakova and Masha Denysova. Together, these accounts form a mosaic of daily life in a city at war: fear, exhaustion, darkness and cold, but also black humor, friendship, and attempts to keep ordinary life going. «Women in the Dark» is an international production about a Ukrainian experience that could happen to anyone. It premieres on August 29 in Frankfurt am Main as part of the Days of Exile festival, followed by a Kassel performance on September 12.
Real stories
During the winter of 2022–2023, when Russian strikes cut off Kyiv’s electricity, heat, and internet, playwrights Iryna Serebriakova and Masha Denysova called friends and acquaintances in the city and recorded the conversations. The women described how the war and the blackouts had transformed the most ordinary things — sleep, cooking, getting around the city, staying in touch. These recorded conversations became the basis for the script of the documentary play «Frauen im Dunkeln,» which weaves the experiences of 17 Kyiv women into a single shared story that is by turns frightening, funny, and absurd.
Three languages, three actresses
The «women in the dark» are portrayed by three actresses — Tetiana Kargaeva, Edda Lina Jantz, and Maria Riaboshapka — alongside a male skeleton that appears onstage. The actresses dance with it, interact with one another, and sometimes draw the audience into the action. The play is performed in three languages — Ukrainian, German, and English — with subtitles provided.
«One of the ideas was to create the feeling that someone is speaking to you in your own native language — to make this not just a local, Ukrainian story, but one where a person can feel this could happen to them too, that they could find themselves in the same situation: no light, no heat, war in your own country, and somehow having to survive,» explains actress Tetiana Kargaeva. She draws a parallel with postwar Germany, where people also had to rely on one another, share what was scarce, and stick together. In difficult circumstances, she stresses, solidarity stops being an abstract idea and becomes a way to survive.
«Laughing and crying together»
Tetiana Kargaeva is originally from Mariupol and has lived and worked in Germany since 2022. She is a guest actress at the Staatstheater Mainz, develops theater-education programs for Ukrainian teenagers, and takes part in projects at the Münchner Kammerspiele. According to Tetiana, «Women in the Dark» aims to connect German and Ukrainian audiences through a shared experience: «I think it’s really important for German and Ukrainian audiences to meet in the auditorium — ideally in a fifty-fifty split.»
«When we Ukrainians arrived in Germany after the full-scale invasion, we were the ones who needed help, and Germans were the ones who could give it. Meeting as equals is very hard in that kind of relationship. But at our performances, the audience can laugh together, cry together, feel for the characters. And in that moment, a meeting happens — on the level of shared experience. The theater becomes a space where we Ukrainians can meet Germans and really see one another,» Tetiana emphasizes.
An international team
The production was developed in Berlin by an international team. Early stage versions of the play date back to 2023, starting with an English-language reading at ACUD Theater, followed by further staged readings. Director Satchel Reemtsma mounted the full production in Berlin in January 2025. Costume designer Lenna Stamm created the costumes, and violinist Nick Yagmai provides the live musical accompaniment. The team went through several stages of working with the documentary material before «Women in the Dark» reached its current form.