Two plays about Ukraine won awards in late May in the United States.
On May 20, the prestigious 2024 Elliot Norton Awards, presented by The Boston Theater Critic Association, were awarded to the play “The Hague,” staged at the Arlekin Players Theater in Boston, directed by Sasha Denysova. This play is an imaginary trial of Putin, told by an orphan girl from Mariupol, in whose imagination the Russian dictator’s criminal associates appear, from Kadyrov to Kovalchuk. A record number of 18 actors from New York, Los Angeles, and Boston took part in the performance, and the virtual performance was watched by viewers across the country thanks to the Ukrainian-born director Igor Golyak.
On May 20, in Washington, D.C., the Helen Hayes Awards for Best Play of the Year went to Sasha Denisova’s My Mother and the Full-Blown Invasion. The play tells the story of the playwright’s 82-year-old mother and was staged by two of the largest theaters in the United States: the Woolly Mammoth Theater and The Wilma Theater.
The set designers also won both awards. Both productions received high-profile reviews in the Washington Post, The New Yorker, and the Guardian.
