untitled

Assembly Roxy – Upstairs Thursday 1 August – Sunday 25 August 11.00 (1hr)

Twice prime minister of Ukraine, heroine of the Orange Revolution, Yulia Tymoshenko was sentenced to seven years in prison in October 2011 on a charge of abuse in office relating to gas deals with Russia. In April this year The European Court of Human Rights declared her imprisonment “politically motivated”. Tymoshenko has always claimed that her detention was intended to keep her out of politics and that her rights have been violated The court agreed unanimously that she had been jailed “for other reasons” than those permissible by law.  Yulia Tymoshenko remains in a Ukrainian prison.

Directed by Jakov Sedlar who directed the 2012 documentary of the same name, Who Wants To Kill Yulia Tymoshenko is a searing account of the woman who has spent her life fighting for democracy and whose political opponents have taken extreme measures to silence her.  Set in the prison cell she shares with a young woman who was framed for murder, the play paints a portrait of a freedom fighter who has been imprisoned by a corrupt regime, it reveals the steely determination that motivates her as well an understanding and closeness that develops with the cellmate who becomes her saviour as well as her enemy.

Instantly recognisable by her yellow braids, Tymoshenko was a practicing economist and academic. Prior to her political career, Yulia Tymoshenko was a successful but controversial businesswoman in the gas industry, becoming by some estimates one of the richest people in the country.

+ posts

John graduated from Telford College in 2010 with an HNC in Practical Journalism and since then he worked for the North Edinburgh News, The Southern Reporter, the Irish News Review and The Edinburgh Reporter. In addition he has been published in the Edinburgh Evening News and the Hibernian FC Programme.