When Matthew Mackenzie and Mariya Khomutova first met in Ukraine, they never could have guessed at the incredible, and often terrifying, journey they would go on together to become a family. They talk about this, and so much more, in their play First Métis Man of Odesa, on right now at Soulpepper Theatre Company. I am so happy that Mariya could answer my questions about the play, the process of making it an audio drama, and talk about some beautiful moments from their tour last year.

1. Could you please introduce yourself to my readers and talk a bit about your role with First Métis Man of Odesa?

My name is Mariya Khomutova, I’m a co-writer and co-performer in “First Métis Man of Odesa”. I play the Ukrainian woman Masha, an actor and a new Canadian, who goes through different adventures with her husband Matt, so I’m basically playing myself (or a stage version of myself in a period 2018-2022).

2. I recently listened to your show on PlayMe! What was it like performing your play as an audio drama?

I loved the whole process of it! Audio drama allowed us adding a new level of intimacy and detailed exploration that is hard to do on a big stage sometimes, especially when we did more than 100 shows already. It definitely increased the freshness of my own perception of the play. And the result, with all the sound design and the attentive work that the team of PlayMe podcast did, was just wonderful!!! I’m truly pleased with this work!

3. Mariya, you mention in the play about being hesitant to write about your experiences. Now that you’ve written this play and you’ve performed it in several cities, do you still feel the same?

No, I definitely feel different now. In the beginning of the tour I was not even sure if I’ll be able to perform the whole show in English (though it was my own text), leave aside the feeling of total emotional insecurity and instability that I felt back then. Now I found the purpose of this show, and it doesn’t lay in my acting abilities or how I’ll be presented in a story, and I’m not that nervous anymore. And also, I’ve seen couple of theatre shows in Toronto where personal stories are set as an amazing material for any actor – not only for that one who actually performs it – so there’s a certain distance in it, that I want to learn. I hope “First Métis Man of Odesa” will also be a material for other actor one day, I’d love to see it.

4. I love the pathway of creatures and mythology you draw from Odesa to Edmonton. How did you come up with that?

Matthew wrote me an amazing poem when I was expecting, and we were separated for 4 months on different sides of the world, because of COVID. In this poem, I turned out to be a Red Sparrow who, he dreamt, will fly to Alberta across all the boundaries to find him as a chickadee, and that’s how we hold our hope to be together soon. I really loved that poem, and carried it in my memory for a long time, so when the time came to write a play, Matt developed it. But actually, it was him who flew across the world in pandemic to find his Red Sparrow and bring her to Canada.

5. Is there a moment that’s really stood out as you’ve performed First Métis Man of Odesa around the country?

In every city, there are always many people who wait for us after the show and want to share their stories. Sometimes Ukrainians stay to talk to be in Ukrainian. I think many of them feel really emotional in the end of the show, even men, so seeing that and listening to what they want to share is always such a gift!

I want to thank Mariya again for taking the time to answer my questions. I loved seeing this play in 2023 and listening to the audio drama version, and I look forward to seeing it again at Soulpepper! For more information and tickets, visit: https://www.soulpepper.ca/performances/firstmetisman

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