In the run up to the war in Ukraine, a neighbourhood like any other is left in a profound state of tension.
Inspired by a news story about Ukrainian refuse workers, the play follows the immensely likeable Maks, a refuse worker who knows several of the households on his route. We get to know them through Maks’s eyes, and the intimacy that comes from knowing what people throw away: pregnancy tests, TV sets, bottles, a brand new dress.
As the hour goes by, the play progresses from funny, charming and sometimes moving character vignettes to portraying deeper relationships as the impending crisis brings people together. The cast of three embrace physicality and non-naturalism on their tiny stage space as they switch into different roles, even sharing the part of Maks and Valentyna’s son.
For much of the play, characters speak directly to the audience. The directness of this approach brings the significance of subtle moments to the fore, for example, Maks quietly unpacking the bag his wife has packed for him signalling his choice not to flee, but to stay in Ukraine. One of Refuse’s most moving moments was when Maks has a panic attack, speaking in a mixture of Ukrainian and English as the relationship between words and meaning seems to crumble.
Although elements of the plot and staging for me felt a little overwrought, Refuse is a massively moving story with performances which cut right to the bone, especially from Vasyl Sydorko and Maria Shtofa, both of whom are Ukrainian themselves.
Despite being on at 11am in a tiny lecture theatre, with a minimal set featuring a wheelie bin and a door in its frame, audience members were drawn deep into the world of the play. By the end, more than one was left in tears.
As well as being a play about community, and about the impending dread and disbelief that war brings, Refuse poses questions about what is rubbish and what is treasure, and what we have power over as individuals. ’I do it because it means I am alive and I matter,’ Maks says of his daily routine, ‘I do not like to talk, I like to do’.
Refuse was at Studio Five at Assembly George Square Studios during Edinburgh Festival Fringe 2025
