Bad Roads

by Natal'ya Vorozhbit, Sasha Dugdale (Translator)

In the darkest recesses of Ukraine, a war is raging.

A journalist takes a research trip to the front line. Teenage girls wait for soldiers on benches. A medic mourns her lover killed in action.

Natal'ya Vorozhbit's play Bad Roads is a heartbreaking, powerful and bitterly comic account of what it is to be a woman in wartime.

It was premiered at the Royal Court Theatre, London, in the Jerwood Theatre Upstairs, in November 2017, in a production directed by Vicky Featherstone. It was developed by the Royal Court International Department, and translated by Sasha Dugdale.

'I spend the night in an officer’s barracks, where no woman has ever set foot.'

Genres: Plays

80 pages, Paperback

Published November 16, 2017

Reviews

[Elizabeth · Rating 4 out of 5]

6 different scenes depicting women in war in Ukraine. Brutal realism, reminiscent of Sarah Kane's Blasted.

[Rosamund · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very sad and disturbing play about the war in the Donbas region of Ukraine in 2014/15. I found some of the episodes and dialogues powerful but the play as a whole disjointed.

[Philippa · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not particularly theatrical. Prose at the beginning and film scenes at the end.

[Malaika Opany · Rating 1 out of 5]

This was awful. Had to read this for my uni course and I nearly cried. It was so weird.