How do you feel the play deals with issues of 'exploitation', and what counteracts that?
Exploitation implies victimhood only on one side and I do not believe that this is entirely the case with online matchmaking or 'mail order brides'. Of course, a main focus of the play, especially in the second half, is the exploitation of women and the depressing lack of opportunity that a gendered and oppressive society creates for them. But I feel this is more a play about perceptions of male/female roles and how those perceptions still exist as much here as they do in Ukraine. At times they are equally harmful for the men. Love and loneliness are easier ideas to empathise with and I tried to communicate the exploitation through that. I suppose the levity of the first half - the music and the choreography, the Rom-com feel early in the play -counteracts the darker documentary elements.
You are studying Russian and Czech. How has this informed your writing and have you drawn from personal experience with travel or other research?
I travelled to Ukraine 6 weeks ago before the start of the rehearsal process with Daisy (who plays Katya); we visited Odessa and stayed in Kyiv. We met lots of great young people who were rather dismayed that these programmes and perceptions still exist. Lots of the material in the play is inspired by documentaries and conversations I have had with people I met in Ukraine. The Russian verbatim parts are taken from documentaries. Understanding Russian influenced the language and imagery that the girls used in their speech. The female actors came up with their own 'idioms'/'images' that beautifully captured their character's situation, these images wouldn't work in English (or in an English accent) but they sounded beautifully simple and real when we imagine them to be thinking in Russian. It is easy to imagine the mood of the piece might be bleak, yet there is much levity and humour.
What is the message you want your play to convey?
I wanted the play to be entertaining and to have a playful carnival feel to it in its staging/set/choreography/music etc. If something is funny, cute or beautiful the darker elements take the audience more unawares and seem more real. I don't really think laying out a message would be helpful. We wanted to show and not tell. This issue is real and contemporary and happens in the UK and around the world. If anything I wanted to take people out of Oxford for 90 minutes.
Finally, what do you (and others involved in its production) hope to do from here?
I'd love to continue writing and directing. My logic is to keep at it as long as the material's good, and as long as people are enjoying the plays. Many of the cast are looking into working in theatre, but we're still young. We're so lucky to be able to work so freely and with such support, and to be surrounded by such a wealth of talented people. I feel it will be hard to replicate that for a while. I think we're just taking each day as it comes. Perhaps Colin and Katya has a life after Saturday, we'll see.