Іван Карпенко-Карий – корифей українського театру | Ірина Фаріон

A poetic tribute to Ivan Karpenko-Karyi, a founding figure of Ukrainian theater, exploring his life, legacy, and cultural impact.

Key Takeaways

Ivan Karpenko-Karyi is a foundational figure in Ukrainian theater and culture.
Theater played a crucial role in preserving Ukrainian identity under political oppression.
Karpenko-Karyi’s family collectively contributed significantly to Ukrainian theatrical arts.
His civil service career informed his deep understanding of Ukrainian society.
His legacy continues to inspire Ukrainian cultural pride and artistic expression.

What the video covers

Ivan Karpenko-Karyi is celebrated as a world-renowned Ukrainian playwright and actor, pivotal in shaping modern Ukrainian theater.
The video marks the 175th anniversary of Karpenko-Karyi's birth and highlights his role in preserving Ukrainian culture through theater.
Karpenko-Karyi's family, including siblings Panas Saksahansky and Mykola Sadovsky, were all influential figures in Ukrainian theater.
His parents' story reflects a union overcoming social barriers, contributing to a legacy that deeply influenced Ukrainian cultural identity.
Karpenko-Karyi initially worked as a civil servant, which gave him insight into the Ukrainian people's lives and inspired his dramatic works.
The Ukrainian theater of the 19th century served as a political and cultural platform during times of oppression and censorship.
The video emphasizes theater as an educational, ideological, and political institution vital to national identity and resistance.
Karpenko-Karyi's works, including the notable play 'Sava Chalyi,' address themes of betrayal and national struggle.
The video also touches on the personal life of Karpenko-Karyi, including his marriage to Sofia Tobilevych and his death in exile.
The legacy of Karpenko-Karyi and his family is framed as a testament to the resilience and spirit of the Ukrainian nation.

Chapters

Who was Ivan Karpenko-Karyi and why is he important?

Ivan Karpenko-Karyi was a prominent Ukrainian playwright and actor, considered one of the founders of modern Ukrainian theater. He used theater as a means to preserve and promote Ukrainian culture and identity during times of political oppression.

What role did theater play in Ukrainian society according to the video?

Theater served as an educational, ideological, and political institution that became a platform for expressing Ukrainian national identity and resistance when the Ukrainian state and language were suppressed.

How did Ivan Karpenko-Karyi’s family influence Ukrainian theater?

Karpenko-Karyi’s siblings, including Panas Saksahansky and Mykola Sadovsky, were also key figures in Ukrainian theater. Their parents fostered a cultural environment that nurtured their talents, collectively contributing to the development of Ukrainian theatrical arts.

Full Transcript — Download SRT & Markdown

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Glory to Ukraine! Distinguished ladies and gentlemen! Our conversation today is exceptionally artistic and poetic. I approach this figure with special reverence, someone quite well-known to the public, unlike those we sometimes tell you about. But it seems to me that

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refreshing our knowledge sometimes yields very unexpected fruits. The hero of our studio is the world-renowned, the best in Ukraine, and perhaps in the whole world, playwright and actor Ivan Karpenko-Karyi. That very Ivan Karpenko-Karyi who, fortunately, has been included in the list of

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commemorated figures by a resolution of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine for his anniversary. That is, 175 years this autumn, so luxurious and golden, have passed since this amazing man named Tobilevych, Ivan by name, came into the world. But since our program is the

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Ukrainian gene, we are presenting before you an entire generation of those prominent Ukrainian figures who are holding us all in their hands. For the greatest happiness of every nation is to be obsessed with its own culture.

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So, this year marks not only 175 years since the birth of this charming man.

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With those dashing, curled-up mustaches of a lady-killer, it also marks 160 years since the birth of his second wife, Sofia Tobilevych. Sofia Tobilevych, whom you can see here in our photo. Sofia Tobilevych outlived her husband by at least half a century.

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Although, when Ivan Karpenko-Karyi passed into eternity, she said she would never be able to live without him. But the heavens write a separate destiny and life path for each of us.

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So, ladies and gentlemen, before we proceed to analyze this amazing figure who said: "The stage is my idol, the theater is my sacred temple," let us recall how that Ukrainian theater was created in the 19th century. That theater which became not just the

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primary form of Ukrainian art. This theater which became a tribune for the Ukrainian spirit, a stage for Ukrainian political existence. It is the theater that brought the Ukrainian forward as the protagonist of his own history.

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That is, as Karpenko-Karyi himself emphasized and his wife repeated in her brilliant memoirs about her husband, theater is the primary educational institution. Karpenko emphasized something else as well: that it is not only an educational institution, it is a training institution, a worldview

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institution, an ideological institution, and the main political marker of a mature nation. Because when Ukrainians had nothing, no remnants of their own state, the stage remained. And he was the one who created that stage. And theater in Ukraine began very naturally

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. And our best natural environment is, of course, the family. It was precisely in the family circle of Lysenko and Mykhailo Starytskyi. And Mykola Lysenko and Mykhailo Starytskyi were relatives, they were cousins, and Mykola Lysenko’s own sister married

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Starytskyi. It was they who played at this theater at home. And not just theater, they played at choir as well.

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And this choir, which was initially based on amateur capabilities, eventually captivated all of Ukraine with its unprecedented artistic and masterful level. This is how what later became known in our history as the Theater of Coryphaei began. And so,

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ladies and gentlemen, here is what he meant to Ukraine, as our great Ivan Franko says. For the development of its social and spiritual life, this is felt by everyone who has either seen him on stage or at least read his works. This

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is understood by everyone who knows that he was one of the fathers of the modern Ukrainian theater, an outstanding artist, and at the same time a great playwright to whom our literature has no equal, and without a doubt, the world has no equal to him

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even today. He was born on September 29, 1845, in the village of Arsenivka.

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This is now the Kirovohrad region, which just cannot seem to become the Kropyvnytskyi region for obvious reasons. He passed into eternity on the 2nd or 15th of September, depending on the calendar style. Autumn also brought him into this world, and autumn took

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him away. He passed away in a foreign land, which cast an incredible shadow of sadness over both his wife and his final days, for a foreign land was always absolutely secondary to him. In Berlin in 1907, he was only 62 years

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old. In what kind of cohort did this man, who is a playwright of world renown, grow up? So, Panas Saksahansky is his brother. Mykola Sadovsky is his brother. Maria Sadovska-Barilotti is his sister. He also had two other siblings. What kind of mother and

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father were they, that they gave birth to six children, four of whom were coryphaei of the Ukrainian theater? Who were this mother and father who, through their four children, brought the entire Ukrainian nation to the theatrical stage, saying: "We exist

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despite your Valuev decrees, Ems ukazes, despite the ban on the Ukrainian word, despite the destruction of the Ukrainian state, despite the ban on the ethnonym." But we exist, and we will show you, the Ukrainians, on the most

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important stage—the stage where the human soul is revealed—the theatrical stage. So, the father's name was Karpo, with the patronymic Adamovych.

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Tobilevych or Tubilevych. He worked as an estate manager for landlords. The mother's name was Yevdokia. According to one set of data, she was a serf of Mr. Zolotnytsky. And this estate manager, or "prykashchyk" as they were called then, fell in love with this

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charming serf and bought her out of serfdom. That is how they got married. Some sources say this. Other sources do not indicate that the mother was a serf or that Karpo Adamovych bought her from the Zolotnytskys. You can observe the

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actual portrait of this amazing man. It was these two people, captured by the charm of love, who gifted our culture, our country, and the whole world, without a doubt, Karpenko-Kary, Sadovsky, Saksahansky, and Sadovska-Barilotti. As Panas, brother of Ivan Karpenko-Kary, recalled—you

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can watch the "Great Personalities" episode about Panas Saksahansky. I also wrote this during the jubilee year of Panas Saksahansky: it was from our mother, precisely from our mother, that we received this colossal gift of transforming on stage. And it was from

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our mother that we learned to see and hear the Ukrainian soul. Mother knew the immense power of Ukrainian folk songs. Mother knew "Natalka Poltavka" by heart. Mother would cry while watching actors perform. You know who I’m reminded of here? I’m reminded

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of the mother of our prominent contemporary Ukrainian people's artist, winner of every possible award that exists, Bohdan Beniuk. That’s how Beniuk’s mother knew how to transform. And once, when her son played some bad character in a film, she said to

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her son Bohdan Beniuk: "Good God, why are you so ill-mannered, so rude? Why did you do such a thing?" That is roughly how Mrs. Yevdokia was. Father was cool toward his children's hobbies, but it was impossible to suppress their

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mother's gene. Although Ivan Karpenko-Kary did not begin as an actor, did not begin as a playwright, did not begin as a writer at all, but rather began with something that, let's say, wasn't very inspiring—he began as a civil servant, because he worked,

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because he finished some educational institution in Bobrynets and worked as a clerk. At first in the city hall, then he worked as a secretary, and then, ladies and gentlemen, he had an incredibly strange position in Kherson.

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He worked as a secretary for the Kherson police. An incredibly romantic job, right? But this work in the police, this work in the city hall, this work with documents and court cases showed him the Ukrainian soul in all its

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different colors. All of its sides—black, white, and everything in between. Meaning, thanks to those positions, he had the opportunity to enter the character of the Ukrainian, to enter the drama of their life, in order to then transfer all of that onto the

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pages of his immortal, dramatic, tragic, and hilariously great works. So, in 1859, he graduated with honors.

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, he married a fantastic lady of the Ukrainian cultural world, a noblewoman who belonged to a Polish lineage. I will name her surname now, and the associations that will come to your mind will be very beautiful. The lady's

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name was Nadiya Tarkovska. Yes, yes. Nadiya Tarkovska—that famous film director Andrei Tarkovsky is her grand-nephew. She was incredibly artistically gifted. And, as sources say, it was while playing in Taras Shevchenko’s play "Nazar Stodolia," as Halya and Nazar, that they met and

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acted their way to what, exactly? Well, to love. And that is wonderful. They had many children together. However, our life is not always so beautiful and luxurious. One of the children was named Halya; incidentally, Tobilevych named his children just as Taras

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Hryhorovych named the heroes of his plays and works. He was in love with the work of Taras Shevchenko. His wife fell ill with consumption, as they called it then, and she died in 1881.

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That year. This was a terrible drama for Ivan Karpenko-Kary, or Tobilevych. His pseudonym was taken from his father , Karpo Karpenko, and "Kary" from the name of a character in a work by Taras Hryhorovych Shevchenko. So, at the very

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time his wife passed away, the Moscow authorities became interested in him, seeing in this man a dangerous figure for the Russian Empire, because the circle of Ivan Karpenko-Kary, or Tobilevych, was not just the clerks who worked with him. It was a circle of the

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leading cultural figures of that time. In particular, in Kherson, the gymnasium teacher Pylchykov and others influenced Karpenko-Kary's worldview.

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He read an enormous amount, both his own literature and foreign literature. Iconic figures of our culture, such as the Rusov family, would visit his home.

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He hid them in his home, that is, Sofia Rusova, née Lindfors, and her husband Rusov. They were in the closest circle of Mykola Lysenko. And then, one day, the Starytskyi troupe arrived. And when Ivan Karpenko-Kary joined this troupe,

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Starytskyi said that it was something incredible and invaluable. "I am buying 10 bottles of champagne because you appeared in our group with such energy, with such acting skill," which Ivan Karpenko-Kary had already shown back when he was a civil servant, and he and

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other young people would gather in their circle to stage various plays and games, as they called them then. Well, particularly from Russian classics, primarily since Ukrainian was forbidden . Ladies and gentlemen, so, uh, this persecution of his, and finally the

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demand to leave Ukraine—notice how efficiently they worked—to leave Ukraine almost entirely, because, I quote, "for spreading harmful thoughts among the people to undermine the existing order." Yes. And so he is exiled to a city called Novocherkassk.

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Here, Ivan Franko rightly remarks. Once again, the tsarist government lost the police inspector Tobilevych, while Ukraine gained the playwright Karpenko-Kary. And it was there, in Novocherkassk, that he wrote his first drama, titled "Shepherd and Day-Laborer ," which was banned. It was impossible

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to stage it at that time. And it was there, as his second wife recalls, under the influence of reading Ukrainian dumas, in that wild foreign land, in that desolation, in that Moscow nightmare, that he was nurtured by the Ukrainian song and the Ukrainian

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duma, and there came to him the creativity that would bring him world fame. He worked there as a blacksmith, worked as a bookbinder, barely surviving in that Novocherkassk. But in this Novocherkassk, another landmark event happens to him, which brings him

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out of the deep depression following the death of his wife and his exile to Novocherkassk. Even before that, at a dinner, he witnessed a charming young lady; this lady was called Zosya. When this charming young lady, Zosya Didkovska, joined the group of

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Starytsky’s troupe, she had nowhere to sit because everyone who arrived had already taken their seats at the table.

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Karpenko-Kary immediately made room for her, but for some reason, he heard that the Ukrainian actors were mocking this young lady quite a bit. And why were they mocking her? They weren't just mocking her; they started to bully her.

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We are already used to the bullying of Ukrainians in Ukraine, aren't we? But here, they are bullying a young lady, and do you know why? They are bullying her because she is Polish, and because this Polish woman joined a Ukrainian

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group. And how did this Polish woman join? This Polish woman, Sofia Didkovska, had actually gone through a very difficult life journey before she ended up in Starytsky’s group. She wanted to take her own life after she lost all means of subsistence. And

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according to one account, she stood by the river and, as she was about to throw herself into the whirlpool, she sang a song with a fantastic voice. And at that moment, a remarkable man was passing by on the street. This

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remarkable man heard the suicide-to-be singing and practically saved her from that suicide. This man is our prominent Ukrainian classic, the founder of Ukrainian classical music, Mykola Lysenko. That is how he saved the life of this Polish woman, who grew up in

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the family of a prominent national figure of the Polish national liberation movement, Sierakowski, who served his exile together with Taras Shevchenko. I mean, just imagine what genetic codes converged in that era when the Ukrainian theater was emerging and being created. She was incredibly

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grateful to Ivan Tobilevych, who protected her from that group of heated Ukrainian actors who reproached her for being Polish, bringing her to tears. He , of course, categorically rejected their stance and shamed them. She remembered that. And so, when he was

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sent into exile in Novocherkassk, this charming Zosya, Zosya Didkovska, packed her belongings and one fine day arrived there to see him. As she recalls in her colossal, best-in-class memoirs about Ivan Karpenko-Kary—which I recommend everyone read—he was simply stunned.

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He widened his eyes in surprise. Why am I in exile? Look at the poverty I’m in, without any means of existence, in this terrible, wild hole of a place.

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You have a fantastic voice. You are a very gifted actress. Go and work. But Sofia did not listen. She stayed in Novocherkassk anyway. And so began their incredibly bright relationship, which gave our culture such a fantastic spark of two talents. Because Sofia

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Tobilevych became a famous folklorist of her time and became a well-known translator. She translated from Polish and became a well-known writer. Her memoirs about the life of the Ukrainian theater of that time are extremely valuable to us. And, of course, her

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memoirs about her husband, Ivan Karpenko-Kary. One of her iconic works, which we, Ukrainians, must remember and be grateful to this ethnic Pole for, who gave her heart, her mind, and ultimately her life to Ukrainian culture. Ultimately, she created all

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the conditions for Ivan Tobilevych to be able to create and write. They sometimes wrote together. She helped him a lot in this and served him. So, her fundamental work, which should be on everyone’s lips, at least for a

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folklorist, was titled Ukrainian Folk Songs Recorded by Sofia Tobilevych. Here, ladies and gentlemen, is a masterclass from a Polish woman for Ukrainians about the foundation of foundations of Ukrainian culture: the Ukrainian folk song. Look at the beauty , how interesting the Petrykivka, uh,

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image on the cover of this book is. Uh, so, as I already noted, Mykola Lysenko saved this Polish woman. And she later gave back to Tobilevych and in that way gave back to Ukrainian culture by recording a series of Ukrainian songs.

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The political worldview of Karpenko-Kary. For me personally, this is extremely important, although the sources that wrote, uh, that studied the work of Karpenko-Kary, paid little attention to it, uh, so that some nationalist or nation-centric note might not sound there. But still, we

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have one extremely important political document that testifies to the political, nation-centric worldview of this prominent figure. This document has a very unpoetic title. The document is called "Note to the Congress of Stage Figures." The first Congress of Stage Figures took place in Moscow in

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1897. Year. It was the first all-Russian congress. And the report for this first all-Russian congress was written by him, his majesty Ivan Karpenko-Kary. That report was delivered by his brother Panas Saksahansky. What was the essence of this report? This report by

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Karpenko-Kary challenged the entire Russian system regarding its attitude toward the Ukrainian language, Ukrainian culture, and the Ukrainian idea. In this report, Ivan Karpenko-Kary emphasized that you have forbidden everything. You have forbidden Ukrainians to stage dramas on historical themes. You have forbidden

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Ukrainians to stage dramas on intellectual themes. You have forbidden Ukrainians to stage dramas about the Ukrainian intelligentsia. You have forbidden Ukrainians, I quote, to use in their works the words: Zaporozhian, Cossack, native land. You, Muscovites, called these words, I quote, I quote in

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the original language, a "zhupel"(bogey ). These words became a bogey for the censorship. And if a play is even slightly decently composed and contains these words, it is better not to send it to the censors. They won't allow it

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anyway. He actually wrote in such a mixed language. Therefore, all Little Russian plays have as their theme monotonous love, completely uninteresting to the people, and are decorated with dances and songs. So, ladies and gentlemen, this is a message

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for those who might say that Ukrainian classics are uninteresting, that they portray something overly melodramatic or sentimental, just booze and vodka, vodka and booze, dancing, and some trivial little romance. Karpenko-Karyi demonstrates this in his report, which was announced by his own brother at a

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congress of stage professionals. It resonated. It had the impact of a bomb in the Ukrainian world at the time.

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This means that not just an outstanding playwright came into Ukrainian culture, but an incredibly courageous person with character. We have a great many talented and gifted artists, but very few among them possess a holistic, nation-centric worldview. Ivan Karpenko-Karyi was one of those people.

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And here, ladies and gentlemen, is an extremely important quote from his wife , Sofia Tobilevych, in her brilliant memoirs about her husband. This very quote shows that no one will ever succeed in defeating Ukraine. Even when it seems we are standing at the very

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edge of an abyss, forces emerge— whether in the west, center, or south of Ukraine—that rise up and pull Ukraine back from that abyss. Here is the quote, from the time after the decree of 1876 when everything was banned: the Ukrainian theater,

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Ukrainian songs, Ukrainian schools, and Ukrainian scholars—the Ems Ukaz of 1876 signed our death warrant. All manifestations were halted for a long time. What an interesting word. " Manifestations"(ob'iavy) in the original, and thus it refers to the manifestations of the cultural national

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movement throughout Ukraine. The Kherson steppe Sich. Do you hear that, dear society? This is the strength of the Ukrainian south. The same south that Putin wanted to occupy. The same south that this dwarf, this Lilliputian Putin, this monster, this Quasimodo,

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this little Zaches—that south he dubbed "Novorossiya." It was then that this south rose up and gave Ukraine a chance to be reborn through the Ukrainian theater and to carry the power of the Ukrainian idea through the stage. "The Kherson steppe Sich, which

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stood guard the whole time," says the great Sofia Tobilevych, "was the first to go on the march, rallying under the banner of civic duty," which read, ladies and gentlemen—precisely because it read "Ukrainian National Theater"—later, the banners read something else: "Glory to Ukraine!""

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Glory to the heroes." Then the banners read: "Death to the enemies." It was from this that Ukrainian liberation began. Let us remember this grand thought from Sofia Tobilevych. Thus, the explosion of his talent falls at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries

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. His most powerful work, the pinnacle of his dramaturgy, is*Sava Chalyi*. It is about a traitor, about those traitors with whom Ukraine is teeming today. Read*Sava Chalyi*to yourselves tonight so that you may become stronger . And his trilogy is grand,

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unparalleled. *Martyn Borulia*, * 100,000*, and*The Master*. There are no equals to those plays today. What does he say himself about his foundational play, "The Master"? "The Master" was permitted for me. The comedy is very serious, and I fear it will be boring

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for an audience that expects only laughter from a comedy. "The Master" is a vicious satire on a man's love for acquisition with no other goal.

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Acquisition for the sake of acquisition . How many are there among us today who seek wealth for the sake of wealth. "I see for myself," Tobilevych says, "that this is my best comedy, and perhaps not just the best, but I won't write

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another like it." Thus, he established the genre of comedy, which in fact became a dramatic comedy. And which truly halted the development of this ethnographic theater, pushing it to the margins, which was so necessary. We will display another quote from

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Karpenko-Kary on the screen, which may inspire you to read his works and visit the theater. The stage, he said. It is my idol, my sacred temple. We must drive things out of the theater as if from the temple of merchants. Farce and

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operetta. They are a disgrace to art because they ruin taste and only delight in vice. Only true literary drama should be played in the theater.

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He essentially transformed tragedy and comedy into drama, where the suffering of the human soul troubles stony hearts and—something is missing here. And by shattering their icy indifference, he brings into the listener's soul a yearning for truth, a yearning for the

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common good, while the tears shed over another's sorrow whiten their soul like snow. In other words, the theater is something that must speak to the Ukrainian soul. Ladies and gentlemen, Tobilevych passed into eternity after falling ill with this terrible disease

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that could not be cured in Germany. His last words were atypical. His last words were "death." He desperately yearned to return to Ukraine from Berlin, where he had gone for treatment , and in his hallucinations, he naturally saw his own people. He died

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among strangers. Today, he is among us. Let us approach his work in a new way.

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And "in a new way" means let us extract from his work those nation-centric meanings that Ukrainian society lacks so much today. May the 175th anniversary of Karpenko-Kary and the 160th anniversary of his wife, Sofia Tobilevych, tell us about what is

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eternal and what is mortal. They are eternal. Glory to Ukraine! Glory to the heroes! And

Topics:Ivan Karpenko-KaryiUkrainian theaterUkrainian culture19th century theaterUkrainian playwrightUkrainian historytheater as political toolSava ChalyiTobilevych familyUkrainian national identity

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