Ukraine Unbroken: Can theatre confront the hideous reality of war?

First up is Always by Jonathan Myerson, a curt, narratively clunky scene-setter. A politician and his wife find their hotel room invaded by a pair of snipers from the security forces, intent on lethally disrupting protests in Maidan Square below, in which the couple’s son is taking part. It’s an electric scenario, bogged down by the requirement to explain pro-Western and pro-Russian points of view and a historic perspective that dates back to the Holodomor, the 1932 Soviet famine that starved Ukraine.