A haunting portrait of life on the frontlines as Ukraine’s Kharkiv comes to Edinburgh Festival Fringe

“You need to hear how Derzhprom turns into a Pokémon, how stars shine over Kharkiv, and how a dog finds its way home across thousands of kilometres,” said Asia Pavlenko, Ukrainian culture critic.

The stories are channelled through a spectral figure, performed by rising star of independent theatre Nina Khyzhna, described by the Ukrainian Institute as “a bright face of Ukrainian cultural resistance”.

In an act of deep courage and solidarity, Nina made the extraordinary decision to leave Europe and return to besieged Kharkiv after the invasion, to give voice to others caught in the devastation.

Nina Khyzhna in Someone Like Me

As theatres across Ukraine brim with audiences seeking solace and catharsis amid the assault, this production, being brought to the UK for the first time at Edinburgh Festival Fringe, speaks to the enduring force of art in times of crisis, and the uncompromising spirit of a nation at war.

Presented by the Ukrainian Institute, Ukraine’s official cultural diplomacy body under the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Someone Like Me invites audiences into an act of witness, an act of empathy.

“In Kharkiv, a city on the frontline, theatres continue to open their doors to audiences despite constant shelling, engaging with themes that resonate deeply with lived experience,” said Andrii Sybiha, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine. “In times of war, art becomes both a refuge and a voice, a means of resilience and testimony through which Ukraine's perspective could be seen, heard, and understood by the world. For Ukraine, participation in the festival in Edinburgh is a powerful opportunity to share the experience of war through the language of art.”

Organised by the Ukrainian Institute, under the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine, in collaboration with the British Council's UK-Ukraine 100-Year Partnership, and supported by the Consulate of Ukraine in Edinburgh, Someone Like Me is not a show chasing box office figures or crowd-pleasing comfort. It is a dispatch from the edge, for those willing to listen, to imagine and to feel.

Nina Khyzhna in Someone Like Me

“A beautiful crescendo finale – impactful, driven by an increasingly taught rhythm that builds to a powerful, almost noisy climax before leaving us in profound silence,” said Alessandro Carli, SanMarino Fixing.