{"id":26513,"date":"2025-02-19T09:00:33","date_gmt":"2025-02-19T17:00:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/?p=26513"},"modified":"2025-02-14T12:25:56","modified_gmt":"2025-02-14T20:25:56","slug":"queen-maeve-explores-forgiveness-through-fantasy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/2025\/02\/19\/queen-maeve-explores-forgiveness-through-fantasy\/","title":{"rendered":"Queen Maeve<\/em> explores forgiveness through fantasy"},"content":{"rendered":"

Director and set designer Diana Budiachenko is a lover of creating abstraction and fantasy through her theatre productions, so it makes sense that she was excited to take on Queen Maeve<\/i>. Theatre Inconnu\u2019s production of Governor General Award winner Judith Thompson\u2019s play is a perfect fit for Budiachenko.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I read it for the first time, I felt that it is very much my kind of text; it is dark in a way, sarcastic, hilarious, and it\u2019s a perfect balance between reality and a completely different world,\u201d says Budiachenko.<\/p>\n

Working on this show really provided Budiachenko\u2014who has a master\u2019s degree in theatre directing from Ukraine\u2014the chance to delve into the fantasy-like otherworld of the main character\u2019s alter ego.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s about a woman in a nursery home. It\u2019s about her relationships with her caregiver, whom she happens to like; her daughter, whom she can\u2019t forgive her past mistakes; and her grandson,\u201d says Budiachenko. \u201cShe has dementia, and when she is triggered, she transforms into powerful Queen Maeve.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Director Diana Budiachenko (left) and Gloria Snider, who plays Queen Maeve (photo by Laurie Rubin).<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Budiachenko previously worked on a similar theatre show, Yaga<\/i>, about an eastern European witch.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis reminds me a little bit of the Ukrainian Yaga, in terms of [being] very powerful, and intimidating at times,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

Budiachenko says that, to her, the main theme of Queen Maeve<\/i> is forgiveness.<\/p>\n

\u201cUsually when you\u2019re in a difficult situation like this, you have two choices,\u201d she says. \u201cYou can either forgive and work on it, or you take a different route and you accuse that person.\u201d<\/p>\n

The ordinary-woman-turned-warrior-queen has a pain-stricken and emotionally strained relationship with her daughter, which Budiachenko notes is a staple of Thompson\u2019s work.<\/p>\n

\u201cJudith Thompson is famous for somewhat dark scripts with complicated characters,\u201d she says. \u201cI think this [play] is classic Judith Thompson.\u201d<\/p>\n

As a director, Budiachenko is inclined towards artistic representations of reality, rather than re-creating reality as we know it. (This will be Budiachenko\u2019s first experience working with Theatre Inconnu, and her third production in Victoria.)<\/p>\n

\u201cTheatre, at least in the UK and Europe, is inclined towards the abstract,\u201d she says. \u201cWe were taught not to copy reality, but to create the environment in which your audience can immerse.\u201d<\/p>\n

This belief is based in creating an immersive experience for the audience that captures their imaginations.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it\u2019s true for all the forms of art\u2014it\u2019s the same as painting,\u201d says Budiachenko. \u201c[Theatre] kind of takes you away from everything. Any form of art fulfills you in a way that nothing could replace.\u201d<\/p>\n

Budiachenko says that rather than talking to a set designer and possibly having conflicting ideas or miscommunications, it\u2019s easier for some directors to imagine themselves where they would put their actors, how they will move, and how their set will cooperate with their vision.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy mentor was a set designer and director, so most of the time, when we discussed place\u2014or what we were going to stage\u2014 we had to come up with the set design,\u201d she says. \u201cIt was part of our training.\u201d<\/p>\n

Time was the main challenge for Budiachenko in putting the show together; the timeframe for staging a production here is around two months, with around three or four rehearsals per week.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn the Ukraine, I had a lot more time to stage a production than here. I\u2019m still adjusting to the new reality of how it works,\u201d she says. \u201cI\u2019m trying to adapt to what it\u2019s like to stage here within the frames and limitations I\u2019m given.\u201d<\/p>\n

Budiachenko is excited to bring Thompson\u2019s fantastical narrative to the stage and to the hearts of the audience.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor me, theatre is a miracle,\u201d says Budiachenko. \u201cWhen you get immersed in a very different atmosphere, and you feel that miracle is happening, that\u2019s a good theatre to me.\u201d<\/p>\n

Queen Maeve
\n<\/i>Various times, Wednesday, February 19 to Saturday, March 8
\n$12 student tickets, Theatre Inconnu
\n(1923 Fernwood Road)
\ntheatreinconnu.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Director and set designer Diana Budiachenko is a lover of creating abstraction and fantasy through her theatre productions, so it makes sense that she was excited to take on Queen Maeve. Theatre Inconnu\u2019s production of Governor General Award winner Judith Thompson\u2019s play is a perfect fit for Budiachenko. \u201cWhen I read it for the first […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":26514,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,327],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-26513","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-arts","category-february-19-2025"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26513","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26513"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26513\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":26515,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26513\/revisions\/26515"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/26514"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26513"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26513"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26513"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}