Fringe 2025 - Life in One Suitcase

This was a one time only performance of a show about Ukrainians and by Ukrainians devised by Oksana Saiapina, and supported by the charity, Mission of Innocents.

The show included performances by children and adults who have come to live in Scotland since the 2022 Russian invasion. It is based on a simple premise – telling the story of dividing and uprooting families from their homes, only packing their possessions into one suitcase when leaving hurriedly after the war began. The journey is one of resilience and determination coupled with creativity.

As charity founder Joyce Landry explained it was pure coincidence that the one time performance took place on what might have been an historic day when President Putin and US President Trump held talks in Alaska, meeting as the performance got underway.

The backdrops were formed from film footage, sometimes showing the devastation of their homeland with actors who walked through the audience onto the stage – as mothers and children sleeping, fleeing, dancing and singing.

The performances include beautiful a cappella singing, as well as singing to background tracks and dancers alternately wearing leather jackets or Ukrainian dress, with HARMONY, the Children’s Choir, Starlight the teens ensemble, FREEDOMSTEPUA, the Folk ensemble and The Flowers of Ukraine, the dance ensemble, Keith Ukraine, the Children’s Dance Studio and My Way, the Children’s Dance Group all taking part.

The performances are peppered by tremendous singing and by scenes of young men turned into soldiers, girls dancing with floating red scarves and a scene full of poppies reminding the audience that most families in Ukraine have lost at least one member.

It is all too easy when the city is full of performing arts to dismiss works such as these as full of passion but still amateur. This show is not that.

Naturally the performers of all ages give it 100% effort – but the direction and production have made it a professional offering worthy of repeat performances elsewhere. The singing and dancing is haunting and beautiful and the show ends with the cast on stage all singing the national anthem with hands on their hearts. There were few in the audience with dry eyes. Some of the young performers have now spent around a third of their lives in Scotland but their national pride has been instilled in them by their mothers and fellow Ukrainians who bond together in an effort to help each other.

The list of thanks was lengthy, beginning with the Depute Lord Provost Lezley Marion Cameron who has been most supportive of the group, to the Association of Ukrainians in Great Britain (AUGB) Edinburgh. The Consul of Ukraine in Edinburgh Andrii Kuslii offered his thanks after the performance.

The charity, Mission of Innocents, is a grassroots initiative that aims to nurture the healing and self-worth of children displaced by war, economic or political instability and environmental disasters. Through arts-based programming it offers young people tools for healing, expression, and empowerment through music, dance, storytelling, poetry and the visual arts. Since its founding, the initiative has provided ongoing support and a sense of belonging to resettled Ukrainian children and families in Scotland. The charity was founded by Joyce Landry and began on board two ships docked in Leith and Glasgow to house Ukrainian refugees after the full scale invasion. The company Landry and Kling provided the ships commissioned by The Scottish Government.

Mission of Innocents presents “Life In One Suitcase”, at the EICC, as part of the Edinburgh Festival Fringe. Created and directed by Oksana Saiapina, the music and dance performance tells the moving stories of Ukrainian people who fled their home after the start of the war, and who resettled in Scotland.