Review: "First Métis Man of Odesa" by Matthew MacKenzie and Mariya Khomutova

First Métis Man of Odesa by Matthew MacKenzie and Mariya Khomutova
Published October 2024 via Playwrights Canada Press
★★★★

When MacKenzie and Khomutova met, the odds were stacked against them: they lived half a world apart from each other, and they each had lives and commitments and passions of their own; too, though they didn't know it at the time, their lives were about to be turned upside down and then inside out by a pandemic and then a war. But life does not always follow the odds, and this is that story.

It's a curious thing, reading a nonfiction play. First Métis Man of Odesa was born out of frustration, in part: frustration that their relationship was impacted so much by external forces, and frustration that there was so little they could do about the war in Ukraine. The structure is as much MacKenzie and Khomutova telling their story as it is them acting it out, but one of the things I love about plays is that the rules are so different than the rules for writing, say, a novel.

While this play was pretty clearly written to be performed by the writers, it would be fascinating to see the differences on stage between their own interpretation (i.e., the play as written) and the interpretation of two actors who do not know the writers—there are a number of lines where inflection would determine meaning. Is this line angry or sad or passionate? What the actor and director decides changes the shape of the scene. (Again, plays work differently from novels; this ambiguity is a plus.) I sort of love that this is a collaboration between a writer and an actor, and they both wrote and acted despite not having experience in each other's realms.

The Canadian tour of this play wrapped up recently, so I imagine no chance of seeing it anytime soon, but one to return to for explorations in playwriting.

Thanks to the authors and publisher for providing a review copy through NetGalley.