"Battle-seasoned Soldier" by Hnat Khotkevich is Les Kurbas's Unrealized Staging

The purpose of the article is to determine the issues and genre-stylistic particularities of G. Khotkevych’s play “Battle-seasoned Soldier” and to find out the circumstances of Les Kurbas’s participation in its passing through the department of the state censorship and in the preparation of its staging at the Hutsul theatre. Methodology of investigation consists of systemic and sociocultural approaches and includes such methods as historical-biographical, cultural-historical, hermeneutical and sociological. Scientific novelty of work consists in the fact that the author is the first person in the Ukrainian art history, who has found out the genre-stylistic particularities and significance of the play “Battle-seasoned Soldier” and Les Kurbas’s attempt of its staging. Conclusions. G. Khotkevych wrote the play “Battle-seasoned” by the Hutsul dialect. According to the genre-stylistic features, it can be described as the “satirical fairy-tale comedy”, created in the Hutsul style. The plot of the play reflects the brave retired soldier’s adventures, the personification of the Ukrainian magician, who defeats the evil forces. The play is devoted to the problem of selling the personal soul to the Devil. Actors use the Hutsul dialect, which reflects the particularities of their character and worldview. Les Kurbas’s experience of acting, directing, administrative work at the Hutsul theatre and his desire to stage the “Battle-seasoned Soldier”, formed him as an artist, developed creative abilities and acquainted him with the mythical poetic world perception of the Hutsuls