As the play begins, actor Kristin Milward unwraps a skein of bandages to reveal a squat black notebook. “This is the symphony of war,” she tells us. The notebook contains a musical score attempting the impossible task of capturing the cruel attack on Ukraine in melody. Milward plays a trumpeter, the sole survivor of a military band, huddling from Russian bombardment below the steelworks of Mariupol in 2022.
The siege of the steelworks took place early in the invasion of Ukraine. Civilians and military sheltered in the basement of the Azovstal steelworks for 80 days, enduring extremes of hunger, fear and injury. For much of the time, communications were cut off – reports of the terrible conditions only gradually emerged.
