Photo by Ju Ostroushko Interbeing Tandem Ukraine participants 2Theatre are happy to announce that thanks to the support received originally from Tandem, and the recent and productive meetings in Kiev thanks to the mobility grant, the production of the international theatre show INTERBEING is confirmed, totally funded and ready to start. The show will be created during spring 2019 and premiere at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in August. The content is written in collaboration with Ukrainian soldiers and photographers. Their experience at the front of east Ukraine will help to build a script with real life stories and images to use during the show. A co-production of young Ukrainian artists and UK award-winning 2theatre, tells a story about “roots of conflict” yet sending a light and positive message for the future. Theatrical language is a combination of ensemble work, object manipulation, live music, acrobatics, mime, dance, mask and physical theatre. Verbal communication will be used combining different languages, but the show will be visual enough to be understood by an audience of any country. The documentary will follow the trip of this young Ukrainians to Europe and show how the western world is reacting to their music, theatre and peaceful message. The final result will be shown in a public event in Kiev, together with the live stream run of the show in the Edinburgh Festival. Photo by Ju Ostroushko ORIGINS In July 2017, London Physical Theatre School held the first summer school of Physical Theatre in Ukraine. 30 theatre professionals from 9 cities across the country learnt techniques of the dynamic modern European theatre and how to devise own material with a mindful approach to collaboration. This was presented in September at the GOGOLfest International Theatre Festival in Kiev – which became the spark and R&D for the new co-production. Simon Williams from British Council Ukraine and Iryna Borovets from Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine came to see the LPTS GOGOLfest performance and had a very warm response. CONTEXT Despite the ongoing war in Ukraine, and using Mindfulness as the lens, we look at the concept of INTERBEING – an understanding that all and everybody co-exist, inter-are. The suggested replacement word for the verb “to be,” coined by Vietnamese Buddhist Monk and scholar Thich Nhat Hanh. It means to inter-dependently co-exist. “The meaning of interbeing recognises the dependence of any one person or thing as to all other people and objects.” ― Thich Nhat Hanh, Peace Nobel Prize nominee 2017.