Face It! Theatre Company, a social justice and political theatre in Binghamton, will put on a play examining the devastating nature of propaganda in the Ukraine war.

“In the Garden of Z,” is a new, all-female play written by Sean and Jelizaveta Robinson. Studying the issue of propaganda through the eyes of a 17-year-old Russian girl named Sabina, the production will follow her as she responds to the Ukraine war and examines how the nature of propaganda and ideology can divide communities.

Director James Michalec MA ‘13, the founder of Face It! Theatre, discussed central themes that will be explored throughout the play.

“It deals with very heavy material such as violence, colonization, imperialism, ideology and what happens when ideologies are carried to an extreme,” Michalec said. “One of the brilliant things that’s in this play is that we have these strands of those things coming together, weaving themselves together with our current crisis of the Ukraine war. In that sense it makes the play extremely relevant.”

Michalec has added his own creative touches to the play — including a violin solo by Andy Chadwick, 37, of Binghamton, and a dance routine choreographed by Ania Nikulina, a research assistant professor of German and Russian studies and a lecturer of theatre.

Face It! Theatre’s productions deal with current issues that affect everybody, and this play will be no different. Dori Ganisin of Binghamton, who will be playing the role of Ludmilla — Sabina’s mother and a supporter of Russian President Vladimir Putin — described how the play’s issue of propaganda is personal and relevant for many people.

“It really does point out that it’s not just Russia that has propaganda, it’s the U.S. as well,” Ganisin said. “And we can see it in the political scene right now — the mudslinging and the lies, you don’t know what to believe anymore, so I think that is really important for people to see.”

Dana Malikova-Buralkiyeva, the actress playing Olga, a Russian journalist, also takes this play personally. A current first-year graduate student studying political science, she spent the past seven years working with Russian propaganda through journalism in her home country of Kazakhstan.

“I fight Russian propaganda and I take war in Ukraine very personally because that means a lot especially on a human level to me,” Malikova-Buralkiyeva said. “When I heard about this play I wanted to be involved somehow. Things went this way that I’m playing a journalist, which is my actual major. This is a play about Russian propaganda and this is what I’ve been living for [the] last three years.”

Face It! Theatre is constantly looking for new material to work with, and “In the Garden of Z” perfectly applies to the company’s mission with its relevance to the ongoing war in Ukraine. Michalec said that because the company is a social justice and political theater, the current conditions that people are living in are what drives the company to continue putting on productions.

Nina Varano of Endwell, the actress playing Agnessa, discussed the importance of a play about the Ukraine war.

“Just putting it on,” Varano said. “Even for people who don’t see it, I think it’s important that people see that there are already artistic cultural movements like this that are happening, that are relevant now.”

Alexandra Blum, the actress playing Sabina and a senior majoring in theatre, expressed what she hopes people will get out of the upcoming production.

“I just really hope that people come with an open mind, an open heart and are able to hear every character out,” Blum said. “Because every single character is fighting for something, and there’s something deeper within them that makes them do that. It’s good to see how the nature of people come about, how these problems arise and how they affect the general public.”

Like all of Face It! Theatre’s productions, “In the Garden of Z” will be free to the public. The play will be performed at the First Congregational Church Theatre on Nov. 1, 2, 8 and 9 at 7 p.m. and Nov. 3 and 10 at 2 p.m.