Calgarian shares experience in Ukraine during war with play ‘Remember Also Me’

Stories heard during a Calgary woman's humanitarian efforts in war-torn Ukraine are now material for her play, 'Remember Also Me.'

A Calgarian is sharing her experiences with the Ukraine war in a play.

Titled Remember Also Me, the play takes play in Ukraine in the early days of the war.

It’s written by Laura Swart and presented by Totus Tuus Productions – a community-based theatre group.

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Swart says she wrote the production after spending a month in Ukraine when war first broke out.

“My work was with a humanitarian organization, and my husband and I are both DART members – which is Disaster Assistance Response Team – so through this organization we go to disaster zones and provide assistance,” she explained.

While in Ukraine, Swart says many Ukrainians wanted to share their stories about the war with her.

“I interviewed a lot of Ukrainian people while I was there,” she said. “I heard their stories and so this play is all verbatim, it’s all their stories, and it’s my story as well of just being a so-called foreigner or being someone in that country and trying to provide relief to overwhelming pain and grief.”

Swart says the play isn’t a singular chronological story, but instead includes vignettes with dancers, opera, piano and live music.

“They wanted to share about the beauty of Ukraine,” she said. “Of Ukrainian culture, food and landscape, so we want it to be also a celebration of Ukraine and the Ukrainian people.”

Swart says it was important for her to represent Ukrainians in the story, but says it was a challenge to find too because like all newcomers, they spend their days working multiple jobs and struggling to get by.

Many also want to forget that how much they’ve lost because of the war.

Swart says much has changed since the play was written in 2022.

“Back then everybody was excited, ‘we’re going to win this war, we’re going to kick these Russians out’, but now there’s fatigue setting in,” she said.

Anna Pompeeva is from Kharkiv and now living in Calgary.

She’s an opera singer who performed for the Kharkiv National Theatre.

Now she’s collaborating with Calgary Opera and the Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra.

“They looked for somebody who can speak at least a little and who can sing,” she said. “This is me; I can speak and I can sing.”

Pompeeva is learning English, but also German and Italian.

She says the power of art can help audiences pay attention to the difficult parts of their lives and the struggles of others.

“This is the stories of real people,” she said. “It’s not about politics; it’s more about philosophy and about real people stories.”

“This is the most important for me, I’m playing here three characters, and this is the power of art to use emotions and to use our voices.”

Anastasiia Kosiur, from Lutsk, came to Calgary in February 2023 with her now husband.

While they’ve started a new life, many of her family members are still in Ukraine.

“I want to show all the world what Russia is now doing, because Ukraine, we have now a very, very bad situation,” she said.

Kosur says she is grateful that Canadians and Calgarians have welcomed her.

Swart says the name Remember Also Me is from the last line of a poem by the father of Ukraine, Taras Shevchenko.

“There’s a lot of philosophy in the play,” she said. “There’s some Shakespeare, there’s some politics, we’re trying to present different views, so I just want (the audience) to learn and go away thinking about the people that are impacted by war.”

The play runs March 9, 11, 16, 19 and 23 at the Artist Lounge on 20 Avenue N.W.