Beneath the silent pause following the concluding blackout of playwright/director Andrew Kushnir’s The Division lies a gut-wrenching reality: Kushnir learns that his ‘dido’ (grandfather), Petro Kushnir, a watchmaker, had ties to the First Ukrainian Division (known as the 14th Waffen Grenadier Division of the SS, 1st Galician) during World War 2. This discovery does not sit well with the family story Kushnir thought he knew. He retraces his grandfather’s path across Europe, carrying the inherited watch, trying to make connections and understand the motives behind his grandfather’s decision.
What keeps this opening-night audience focused is the play’s adopted documentary format, combined with personal testimony from Andrew, his family members, and overseas contacts who provide further insight. The significance of the play’s title is most apt. While it signifies the grandfather’s rank in the Division, there is a ‘division’ in the recounting of the grandfather’s memories by family members and overseas contacts.
Under Kushnir’s meticulous attention to detail as playwright, the opening night production can be considered part history lesson; what truly makes the play moving is its searing dramatization (with Kushnir’s humorous wit) that never veers into emotional manipulation. This terrific world premiere cast makes the audience listen carefully to what is being said. It’s the audience who will feel the pangs, the heartache (with occasional laughter as a release), and the hopefully uplifting ending moving forward.
Crow’s intimate Studio Theatre becomes home to this expansive story, spanning several years of Andrew’s travel, research and discussion at home and overseas. Co-set designers Sim Suzer and Niloufar Ziaee utilize the space’s potential to create a three-quarter theatre-in-the-round setting. Set pieces and props are tightly packed in the playing space, and cast members move and push them into place with ease. Christian Horoszcak’s lighting design evocatively sets the mood. Thomas Ryder Payne’s sound design subtly highlights, with the occasional use of sound, necessary for dramatic impact.
Kushnir’s confident, strong direction and belief in his actors to bring this story to life remain the primary reason audiences must see this production.
Daniel Maslany plays Andrew with genuine believability. Near the end, Maslany’s tears of frustration and exhaustion hit right in the heart as he is torn apart by the truth about his ‘dido’ being revealed. Yet there are moments of humour that allow the audience to be released from these emotional pangs. Maslany slyly incorporates those moments of humour, using a slight pause that makes the audience roar with laughter in the moment’s truth. Maslany (as Andrew) finds himself in a gay bar the night before he returns home, in conversation with Karl Ang, which is quite amusing to watch and hear. Karl Ang, Ivy Charles, Mariya Khomutova and Alon Nashman capably play an array of colourful family members, and a few hardened overseas contacts, as Kushnir continues his quest to understand his ‘dido’ and the choices he made while alive. Their moments of choral speaking at the top of the show are haunting, as Maslany breaks the fourth wall to speak to the audience and tell us what we are about to experience.
For those of us in our mid-60s (like me), The Division becomes a weighty reminder to be “resilient and unbroken” as we begin our journey to know “who we are” (as Kushnir says in his Programme Note) regarding our familial roots and to “figure out what it means to be Ukrainian for myself” (or, in my case, Hungarian).
Thank you, Andrew and this extraordinary cast, for that proverbial push to learn even a bit of Hungarian in the time I have left with this God-given breath of life.
The Division remains a splendid world premiere cast led by an estimable playwright/director.
Please see it.
Running time: approximately 100 minutes with no intermission.
The production runs to May 17 in the Studio Theatre at Crow’s Theatre, 345 Carlaw Avenue, Toronto. For tickets: crowstheatre.com or call (647) 341-7390.
PROJECT HUMANITY, PYRETIC PRODUCTIONS and CROW’S THEATRE present
The World Premiere of
The Division, written and directed by Andrew Kushnir
Set and Costume Co-Designer: Sim Suzer
Set and Costume Co-Designer: Niloufar Ziaee
Lighting Designer: Christian Horoszczak
Sound Designer: Thomas Ryder Payne
Associate Director and Co-Producer: Lianna Makuch
Cultural Consultant: Mariya Khomutova
Apprentice Stage Manager: Evan Reid
Stage Manager: Sam Hale
Performers: Karl Ang, Ivy Charles, Mariya Khomutova, Daniel Maslany, Alon Nashman
