Donbas review – a Ukrainian family fractures on the brink of invasion

2026-02-12 - 17:35

Theatre503, London Olga Braga’s award-winning play captures the suffocating tensions of a household as war looms – finding flashes of tenderness amid the rising threat Olga Braga’s stark new play, the winner of Theatre503’s international playwriting award, is a grim portrait of war in Ukraine. This smartly wrought and tightly packed production clings to the moments before Russia’s full-scale invasion of the Donbas in 2022, as Braga conjures a bleak microcosm of war in a cramped Ukrainian home. Every element of this sometimes overloaded show works hard, with already high tensions within the household increasing as the external threat of Russian occupation creeps closer. Director Anthony Simpson-Pike makes ambitious use of the small stage in his first show as artistic director, while Niall McKeever’s set feigns simplicity only to rip itself impressively apart when invasion strikes. Continue reading...