Show must go on for a Ukrainian director drafted for war ahead of opening night

By BERNAT ARMANGUE and HELENA ALVES
Associated Press

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — The show must go on. Even when its Ukrainian director is drafted by the army weeks before opening night. “Silence, Silence, Silence, Please” is a play that tackles Russia’s war in Ukraine had its world debut in Portugal last week. But it’s chief creator was conspicuously missing from among the packed audience. Pavlo Yurov had meant to be there. Weeks before the opening he had gone to get special documentation that would permit him to make a trip out of Ukraine since men of fighting age are barred from leaving. But he was drafted by Ukraine’s National Guard and is now a press officer attached to a brigade preparing to participate in a much anticipated counteroffensive.