In late June, the first collection of works by playwright, screenwriter, producer, and director Natalia Vorozhbit, titled "What Is This Play About?", was presented in Odesa.
Intent couldn’t pass up the opportunity to cover the event and interview the screenwriter.
Natalia Vorozhbit is a Ukrainian writer, playwright, director, curator, screenwriter, and actress working in the “new drama” genre. She is the curator of the “Donkult” and “GOGOLFEST” festivals and a co-founder of the “Week of Contemporary Plays” festival. Her most notable works include *Cyborgs* (2017), *The Wild Field* (2018), *Catching Kaidash* (2020), and *Bad Roads* (2020). She is a recipient of the Shevchenko Prize, the Oleksandr Dovzhenko State Prize of Ukraine, and the Women in Arts Award.
How the “Catch Kaidash” Phenomenon Came to Be
I didn’t limit myself, and they let me write whatever I wanted. In other words, they didn’t force me to rewrite anything, and they didn’t force me to conform to any particular format. They gave me freedom and trust. These are really—well, these are really great producers who allow that kind of thing. There aren’t many of them—or rather, there are very few of them in Ukrainian television and film. And so I was just lucky enough to be in a situation where I was allowed to write whatever I wanted. And then everything just fell into place. Well, somehow I think it’s a miracle, magic—because of the help from friends who recommended people, and the right people came together to do this. The right people who fell in love with it, who really liked it. And there’s one more very important factor. We weren’t controlled by a studio or a TV network. They gave us just enough money—well, less than the series actually needed—but they left us alone. Natalia Vorozhbit
The Producers’ Biggest Mistake
The main mistake was that they always came asking us to make something like something else—not just some original work—but would say, “Oh, we need a Dr. House, because it’s getting crazy viewership right now.” And everyone rushed to write about some kind of pervert, some doctor like that, but it’s impossible to replicate someone else’s success. The only option is to create something new of your own. Copying someone else’s work doesn’t work. And there were a lot of cases like that. And I usually didn’t agree to that. Then there’s another mistake: they’re convinced they know their audience. They’re convinced viewers won’t watch this. Even when the producers watched the first finished episodes of *The Kaidash Family*, they said, “My God, this is so wonderful, but it’s a niche product. Viewers won’t watch this. It’s not interesting to them.” Can you imagine? See how wrong they were. In reality, the producer doesn’t know their audience.
Natalia Vorozhbit
I’d like to live in a normal country
Am I afraid that, if there’s no war, the world will view Ukraine as just a normal country? If there’s no war—let them view us as a normal country. I really want to live in a normal country where there’s nothing special about it, except that life there is normal. It’s a dream that we’d use the word “patriotism” less, so we wouldn’t have to rely on it. That’s simply the best thing one could dream of. Because we look to European countries—let them see us that way. That’s what we should strive for. Natalia Vorozhbit
Кирило Бойко