The National Theater “Mihai Eminescu” Chisinau will present a play about the atrocities witnessed in Ukraine titled “Requiem for Bucha” on May 9.

Writer Dumitru Crudu, the initiator of the project, has told IPN that the play has an anti-war message and promotes peace, with war poems of poets from Ukraine, Romania and the Republic of Moldova. A large part of the poems that will be recited as part of the play were written after February 24, when the war started in Ukraine. He translated into Romanian the poems written in Ukrainian.

“By this work, we want to draw attention to the fact that the war in Ukraine is not yet over. It is ongoing and we want this war to be won by the Ukrainians and the Russian army to lose it as this is an army of innovators and conquerors,” said Dumitru Crudu, noting that “Requiem for peace” is not a simple poetry recital and incudes scenic design and décor and a video screen that will show war images.

“Requiem for Bucha” is a project of the National Theater “Mihai Eminescu” produced in cooperation with the Arts Center “Coliseum” with the participation of the Academy of Music, Theater and Plastic Arts of Chisinau. The play was staged as part of the National Platform for the Development Promotion of Documentary Theater and is supported by the Swiss Cooperation Office.

The concept and direction belong to Mihai Fusu and Luminița Țâcu, scenography - to Mariana Bivol-Tonu, while the video concept was created by Ian Onică.

Entrance to the play is free of charge, based on places reserved in advance.

At the start of April, immediately after the Russian troops withdrew from Bucha near Kyiv, Ukrainian officials and media related the atrocities committed by the occupation troops in the city. Bucha’s mayor Anatoliy Fedoruk said more than 300 residents had been killed and many bodies still lied on the streets and on pavements.