War, Memory and a Love That Refuses to Die: Inside Katia Haddad’s MARIUPOL

MARIUPOL is a bittersweet love story set across thirty turbulent years and tested by borders and war. Following a successful run at London’s Cockpit Theatre earlier this year and the three year anniversary of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February, Mauripol will be performing at this year’s Edinburgh Festival Fringe and exploring the life of relationships which develop on opposing sides of conflict.

Inspired by playwright Katia Haddad’s own childhood summers in MARIUPOL, we spoke to her about bringing this vital story to life.

Please tell us more about the story of MARIUPOL and the characters whose love story it follows.

The Russian invasion of Ukraine has affected me deeply as I have personal connections to both counties. Even though I have been living in the UK for the past 30 years, the war was a terrible shock: a horrifying, unthinkable event that divided life into “before” and “after”. As a writer, I felt that I needed to do something. I needed to tell my story of MARIUPOL as I remembered it. 

MARIUPOL is inspired in part by your own childhood summers in the city. How did your personal memories shape this story?

MARIUPOL was the city that I visited many times in my childhood and in my youth, spending summer holidays there in the family home of my school friend. When Steve and Galina meet in 1992, their story resembles my own experiences in MARIUPOL. I was that naïve and curious guest from Moscow, ready to meet new people, ready to fall in love. After that, the story of Steve and Galina becomes their own, and I was just following them on their journey.

How did your approach differ when writing each time-period of this story?

Steve and Galina meet 3 times throughout their lives. First, in their youth (when she’s 18 and he’s 23). At their second meeting in 2002, they are in their 3^rd and 4^th decades respectively. And finally, in Act 3, thirty years on, they’re both mature adults and parents of grown-up sons, having lived through personal losses and tragedies. It was interesting to hear them talk and interact at each of these meetings, seeing them mature and get old.  Despite everything else happening in their separate lives, each time they meet, they somehow go back to the young Steve and Galina of their first encounter, to that instant spark of palpable chemistry between them. 

What was the most difficult part to write—and what was the most cathartic?

Act 3. It takes place in a bunker of the bombed Azovstal in April 2022. There were days, after watching the real-life footage, or reading the news, I could only sit in front of my computer and cry, feeling completely helpless and crushed. I had to remind myself that I was writing a work of fiction. In reality, it would be difficult for Galina to come to MARIUPOL from the outside. In the fictional world of the play their last meeting needed to be face-to-face. I had to imagine what they would say to each other, being on the opposite sides of the war. Two people, once so close, now separated by the infinite abyss between them.  Writing that scene was the most cathartic experience for me.  

What did you have to take into consideration when writing about such emotionally charged topics?

It is significant that you call Steve and Galina’s story a “love story”. Obviously, despite the “sliding doors” nature of their encounters - they only meet at the wrong times of their lives - it is a love story. Some people on social media pointed out that now is a wrong and inappropriate time for a love story between a Ukrainian and a Russian. As if that premise of love would be completely natural and acceptable before 24^th February 2022 but should not exist any day after that. There are millions of families in both counties affected and divided by this war. In times of peace, love has no borders. So, how can we implement them in times of war? These are very difficult but important conversations to have. War doesn’t just kill people with bombs and weapons, it severs family ties and human connections. Some might disagree with that, but I can only tell the story that feels true to me.  

What do you hope audiences take away from Galina and Steve’s love story?

That despite everything, love is the most natural thing in the world! Love makes us better versions of ourselves. And it always wins. In the end.  

MARIUPOL is at 33 Pleasance Courtyard Beneath, 30 Jul - 25 Aug (not 6 & 18), 13.00 (14.00). For tickets go to https://www.edfringe.com/tickets/whats-on/mariupol