This is exactly the thought that surfaced in the author of this article after the premiere performance of the collective of the Volyn Drama Theater named after T. Shevchenko titled "Forgive and Have Mercy," which took place on Sunday, December 7. Behind the somewhat intriguing title lay a deep and heart-touching essence. The performance was about the HOLODOMOR, that terrible, anti-human genocide of the Ukrainian people at the beginning of the century. The theater collective tried to bring to life the idea of the play's author — to show people how terrible this event was.

I personally was struck by the essence of this performance. But did other spectators perceive it? On this matter, doubts crept into me. After all, when you watch the scenes of the performance during which a person is tortured for 20 ears of grain picked from a collective farm field, or when a poor suffering mother cries in despair for her drowned children — it becomes frightening and eerie. And yet the spectators loudly applauded at that moment. And why is that?

At that moment one should remember the innocently murdered Ukrainians by the Stalinist system. And no matter how good and professional the actors' performance may be — at that moment one should not be thinking about them.

And about the fact that people do not know how the Requiem sounds and how one should behave during its performance — it is generally hard to speak. Unfortunately, people turned the performance-remembrance of the tragic events of 1933 into a "performance" in the literal sense of the word. And flowers did not belong here either.

But people are different. Accordingly, they perceive any things differently. Therefore I will not judge anyone.

Another thought that surfaced in me after the performance was — how suffering our Ukraine is, how much misfortune and hardship it has endured, how many daughters and sons it has lost. And how many performances on a similar subject can still be staged throughout all of Ukraine!

And from all of this one must draw conclusions, learn, and not allow such mistakes in our history.