Pinskaja šlachta - in London
Saturday 19 July 2008, 2.30pm. Ukrainian Institute, 79 Holland Park, London W11.
To celebrate the 200th anniversary of the birth of the Belarusian writer Vincent Dunin-Marcinkievič (1808-1884), the Anglo-Belarusian Society is organising a rehearsed reading by the Teatral’na Hrupa (Ukrainian Young Players) of his play Pinskaja šlachta (Pinsk Gentry – a musical farce in one act) in a new, recently published translation by Vera Rich. The translator will be present to introduce and guide the proceedings.
The play was originally written in the dialect of the Pinsk region before being rendered into a more obvious form of Belarusian. This fact has led one scholar in Minsk to assert in print that Dunin-Marcinkievič could not therefore have been the author. This in turn has led to speculation as to who might have written the play. Oleksandr Il’yin, a mathematics and IT lecturer from Pinsk, in an article in the Ukrainian journal from Poland (Над Бугом і Нарвою, 1, 2007, p. 39) offers as a possible candidate a folklorist by the name of Stepan Kuklins’kyi (c. 1830-c. 1891). The article can be found at http://nadbuhom.free.ngo.pl/art_0037.html. It is of interest, but — as far as the authorship of the play itself is concerned — no more convincing than the original article which inspired it.
Admission free. A collection will be taken towards expenses. Refreshments will be served.
The Ukrainian Institute is located on the corner of Holland Park Avenue (the main road between Notting Hill Gate and Shepherd’s Bush) and the street called simply ‘Holland Park’. There is a statue of St Volodymyr right on the corner in front of the building. Parking in the area is very difficult. The nearest underground station is Holland Park on the Central Line (almost opposite the Institute). Not far away is Notting Hill Gate station (Central, Circle and District Lines). Buses 31, 94 and 148 stop right outside the Institute. Notting Hill Gate is also served by buses 27, 28, 52, 70, 328, 390, 452.