The Scotsman at the Edinburgh Festivals - Life in One Suitcase - video Dailymotion

The Scotsman

The Scotsman at the Edinburgh Festivals - Life in One Suitcase

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00:00I'm Jane Bradley, Arts and Culture Correspondent at The Scotsman, and I am here today at the EICC

00:04with Joyce Landry, who is Chief Executive of Mission of Innocence, an arts organisation set

00:10up to provide arts activities for children who resettled in Scotland during the conflict in

00:15Ukraine. Hello, Joyce. Nice to see you today. How are you, Jane? Good, thank you. Thanks for being

00:19here with us. We are here today because there is a show which is being put on by children who came

00:25to Scotland during the conflict which you've been in charge of producing. Yes, actually the show was

00:32written by one of the Ukrainian refugees who came over at that time and she has also been a part of

00:39the forming of the organisation or the groups that have come together. We have several, there are

00:45choirs and several dance troops and this is the first time that they're performing on, I would

00:50consider, a real professional stage and they're very excited about this. So it's a story about

00:55their journey. It's their journey from Ukraine to Scotland. It's about Scotland's opening up their

01:00arms to them. So it starts in a very, a place of sadness, leaving, pulling themselves away,

01:09but then creating a whole new community here in Scotland and how their lives have changed and shifted

01:14because of that. Great. That sounds absolutely fantastic and it's on for one night only at the

01:29SEC. One night only. We were so lucky to get this theatre. We're very excited and it was really an honour

01:36and a privilege to be able to do this performance. And can you tell me a little bit about how the charity

01:41was set up? Because it was, it was on one of the cruise ships, which was housing Ukrainian refugees.

01:45Yes. Yeah, actually my company was working with the Scottish government to help to provide the ships

01:52for all of the, everyone coming across. So we ended up with two ships, one in Leeds and one in Glasgow.

01:58And in total, we had over 3,000 adults and about 800 children, 400 on each. And we noticed it was during

02:05summertime that, um, the children were kind of at odds and they were running around and they were playing

02:12in the theatre and they'd be playing up on the stage. And we said, why don't we do something?

02:18Because they looked like they had had some training. And we realized that, and they're doing a little

02:22investigation, that in Ukraine, the arts education is so strong. So a lot of the children already had

02:29dance training and vocal training and musical training and arts training, you know, so to give

02:34them paper and pencils and start to draw or to, uh, just allow them to stand up on stage and, and start

02:40to perform. They took to it and they do it so well. And they're very, very poised. Yeah. It's amazing.

02:46They'll be in front of an audience of three or 400 people and you would never know it. They're just

02:50fearless. Well, I've seen them rehearsing today and they look absolutely fantastic. Looking forward to it.

02:55Thank you so much. Yes. Yeah. Well, thank you again. And I appreciate, um, everyone who could, uh, come

03:01here and support them and really support their resilience. I mean, they're an amazing people, an

03:06amazing culture, and, uh, they somehow have managed to make it through a very trying circumstance and

03:14develop a whole life here. And the Scottish people have been just wonderful to open, have, be here with

03:21open arms. And the show is on, on Friday at the EICC, uh, it's at the EICC at, uh, 3 30 in the

03:28afternoon in the Pentland theater. Brilliant. Thank you so much. Yeah. Yeah. Thank you, Jane.

03:32I'm here with Oksana Sayapina, who is creative director of life in one suitcase here at the EICC.

03:38Hi, Oksana. Hi. So you wrote and created this show yourself and you are from Ukraine yourself and came to

03:46Scotland during the conflict. This performance is entitlement of lives of all Ukrainians who came to

03:56Scotland. And not only me, but all the people I met here in Scotland, they all came, uh, from Ukraine

04:04due to the war in my country. And the, the theater company was created on the cruise ship where a lot

04:12of Ukrainian refugees were settled in Edinburgh. Yes. True. Uh, our program started on the, on board

04:19of cruise ship where lots of Ukrainians, adults and children came from Ukraine. And we started doing

04:25this creative job there. And your background within creative arts in Ukraine as well. Yes, true. Uh, in

04:32Ukraine, I was a choreographer. Moreover, I had my own dance studio, but due to the war started in my country,

04:38I was to shut down my school and leave the place where I lived. And you came to Edinburgh then? Yes,

04:47right. I came straight to Edinburgh from Ukraine. And just right after two weeks being in Edinburgh,

04:54I started a choreography with children. Fantastic. And can you tell me a little bit about the show?

05:00What is the story that you're telling in the actual performance?

05:03It's okay. You don't need to answer this if you don't want to.

05:33We don't want to.

05:38You don't want to.

05:40Whatever.

05:41So what you're saying, what I'm saying is that you're hearing that you're talking about.

05:42You're talking about some of the stuff that I've been learning about.

05:48That's one of the things that I'm reading about.

05:50And I'm listening to you two times that you're reading about.

05:53It's not just about everything that I'm reading about.

05:55So what I'm reading about is the subject of time.

05:57You are reading about everything that I want to be reading about.

The Scotsman at the Edinburgh Festivals - Life in One Suitcase

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