When Canadian playwright Matthew MacKenzie met actress Mariya Khomutova on a research trip to Ukraine, he couldn’t have imagined what would come next.
A whirlwind, long-distance romance. A surprise pregnancy. A shotgun wedding. A global pandemic. A war.
MacKenzie and Khomutova, now married and living in Cabbagetown with their young son Ivan and Khomutova’s mother, have made a play out of their love story, playing in Toronto at the Theatre Centre on Queen Street West until April 8. “First Métis Man of Odesa” chronicles the broad strokes of their courtship and marriage – their intimate wedding in Odesa at the height of the pandemic, their cramped living quarters with a baby and recent refugee, their different senses of humour and artistic tastes – and the show will continue to tour around Canada after this Toronto stop.
“Things happened so rapidly that we’re really able to detail everything that happened to us,” MacKenzie told CP24. “We were initially totally consumed in what was happening with the war, and concerned about friends and family. But it became more and more urgent for us to tell our story.”
“First Métis Man of Odesa” might sound dark – and there are indeed moments in the play of high drama and intense emotions – but the writing is also funny, and candid about the cultural differences between MacKenzie and Khomutova that make their relationship so unique.
“I never expected this would become a play,” Khomutova told CP24. “In Ukraine, it’s a theatre tradition where you mostly do classics, or if it’s a contemporary play, it’s at least something that’s already written…Matt encouraged me to write it all as a diary, and I did that and shared it with him.” The two artists then worked together, combining their writings into a coherent play.
“She barely needed re-writes,” MacKenzie said proudly. “My writing was senseless. Hers was hyper-literate.”
Public response to the play has been overwhelmingly positive, say MacKenzie and Khomutova.
“Friends and others from the Ukrainian community say they feel their own pain, and their own feeling of despair,” said Khomutova. “It’s not a simple feeling. It’s personal. And they feel relieved about that, less alone.”
MacKenzie says he believes the play will continue to evolve as the situation in Ukraine continues to develop.
“Things will obviously transform in Ukraine, and in our lives,” said MacKenzie. One event the family is looking forward to is introducing Ivan, now two and a half, to his maternal grandfather, who is still stuck in Ukraine.
When it comes to their surprise hit of a play, MacKenzie and Khomutova hope Canadians are willing to listen to the plight of Ukrainians whose lives have been turned upside-down by war.
“The war is a close thing. It’s not just far away. Ukrainians are living beside you in your neighbourhood, in Toronto. The war has influenced everyone,” said Khomutova. “This is not just a Ukraine problem. This is a human problem.”
“There has been a near total lack of Ukrainian theatre here, compared to the other major theatre markets of the world,” said MacKenzie. “It’s a strange anomaly. And Toronto has a much higher Ukrainian diaspora rate than places like New York, London. So it feels really good to get the word out about this…we’re thinking about Ukraine through a personal lens, and we want to do anything we can to help, to show the hope, and the joy, the love I have for [Mariya], the love I have for Ivan, the love we have for Ukraine.
“We’re not just thinking about it as a kill zone. It’s a place full of amazing people with their own stories, and hopes and dreams.”
