“Women’s Quarter”: the first concert since the beginning of the war took place in Kyiv

“Women’s Quarter”: over the past year, the actors have only given charity concerts for the military, doctors, volunteers, and IDPs. No tickets were sold for such events. On May 15, a charity tour of Ukrainian cities started. The actors aim to raise the morale of Ukrainians and raise funds to help our defenders. The first concert was held in the capital with a full house.

Charity tour of the Women’s Quarter Kyiv

Anastasia Orudzhova shared what it was like to hold comedy concerts during the war.

“In my opinion, both artists and audiences have already adapted to modern Ukrainian humor. It has become tougher, a bit angrier and sharper. Because these are our realities. We live in a concentration of pain and daily tragedies, but life goes on and it is impossible without humor. So we shouldn’t forget that humor is also our weapon, which helps us maintain our emotional state in a normal way, gives us the opportunity to switch gears for a while, to distract from the news.”

The actors presented a new program and also held a charity auction with unique items. In particular, an exclusive lot from the Women’s Quarter was auctioned off by the artistic director of the collective, Oleksandr Pikalov, an issue of the American magazine TIME with the original signature of the President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

The actors admit that now they are highly motivated to work even harder to be able to help the Ukrainian Armed Forces.

“The thought of our victory, belief in it, and the desire for it to come as soon as possible, sets you up for work. If you realize that your work benefits people, it motivates you to work even harder. Before, I would have moaned that I was tired, but now I’m not, I’m ready to work every day, just to get results: so that we can help the Ukrainian Armed Forces more and bring our victory closer,” says Tanya Pesyk. 

Tanya Pesyk

“After February 24, 2022, Women’s Quarter became completely different, but remained as funny as ever:

“Now we just start calling things by their proper names more often. Because when we talk about “Russians,” it is simply impossible not to add some other harsh epithet. I like this kind of truthfulness. The fact that we talk a lot about the war. And it would be strange if we didn’t talk about it. Our concerts include not only humorous performances, but also many touching and patriotic songs and monologues. Very often, during our performances, both the audience and we, the actors, cannot hold back tears. At the same time, Kvartal remained as funny as ever. Maybe even funnier. But he definitely became even bolder. And we are all so united, we are truly “United Quarter,” says Irina Soponaru. 

Ira Soponaru

In total, the auction raised UAH 315 thousand. These funds will be used to purchase DJI Mavic 3 drones for the 22nd Counter Offensive Brigade, which will liberate the temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine.

Photo: press service