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A SAMUEL FRENCH, LTD. TITLE
Full-Length Play, Drama / 3w, 3m
Olga Braga
Olga Braga’s searing and darkly funny debut Donbas asks how people keep living and dreaming, even in uncertain times.
Winner! 2025 Theatre503 International Playwriting Award
In a small town near the front, Seryoga, a weary father, tries to stop his son Sashko from joining the war. His partner, Marianca, longs to escape but is trapped by love and circumstance. Vera, their neighbour, grieves a daughter killed in the fighting. And Nadya, a young girl who plays at being a Cossack, becomes the play’s conscience: child, witness and keeper of myth. As the family fractures, myth and reality blur. Sashko and Nadya imagine heroic Cossacks riding through the steppe, even as civilians are killed and homes collapse around them. Language itself fractures; the names of things change daily. The Cossack past collides with a war-torn present, as Sashko, the idealist, confronts Dmitry, the hardened soldier, two sides of a nation at war. Nadya, wounded but unbroken, becomes the bearer of a new myth: one that refuses disappearance and insists that the land keeps what’s good.
Donbas was first produced by Theatre503, Good Chance and 45North in association with Seventh Productions and premiered at Theatre503, London, on 5 February 2026.
SERYOGA (Sergey or Serhiy) – A Ukrainian man (50s)SASHKO (Oleksandr, Sasha, Sash’) – Seryoga’s son (20s)MARIANCA – A Moldovan woman (30s)IVAN – An elderly Russian man (50s/60s)VERA – An elderly Ukrainian woman, Nadya’s grandmother (60s)NADYA – Ukrainian teen/young woman (15)DMITRY – Russian, doubles with SERYOGA (50s)ALEXEI – Of mixed former-USSR heritage, doubles with SASHKO (20s)
The play is performed by a company of six actors. All performers are adults. All characters share the same accent (as chosen by the director); Marianca’s accent is distinct.
The roles of Seryoga & Dmitry are played by the same actor.The roles of Sashko & Alexei are played by the same actor.
Donbas, Ukraine. An abandoned house and Seryoga’s place. Now.
“Sharp... vivid... urgent.” – The Arts Desk
“A smartly-wrought and tightly-packed production.” – The Guardian
“Morally complex and skillfully drawn.” – The Stage
“Hope permeates the production.” – All That Dazzles
“Donbas as a play showcases exactly why we need to be supporting more new writing when important stories like these need to be told. The production and play itself show great depth and understanding.” – Love London Love Culture
“This play establishes Braga as probably the best writer Ukraine has given the English language since the great, and now sadly late, Marina Lewycka.” – London Pub Theatres Magazine
“Rousing and uplifting.” – Lost in Theatreland
“Braga’s play masterfully weaves dark humour and a nuanced exploration of conflict and home politics to deliver a poignant comment on the state of our world.” – Theatre and Tonic
“Deeply humanistic.” – The Theatre Times
Olga Braga is a playwright and screenwriter, currently on attachment with the National Theatre, London. Her play Donbas won the Theatre503 International Playwriting Award (from 1,586 submissions). Return to Sender has received public readings with the New York Drama League, R ...
by Roxy Cook
Roxy Cook