Children in Theatre and Theatre for Children during the War in Ukraine

This article explores how theatre for children engages with and responds to the impact of military conflict on young people. Drawing on the ideas of Sara Ahmed and Marvin Carlson, the essay proposes a ghosting-and-affect-led approach to examining various works created for and with children in Ukraine, Poland, and the Netherlands following the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine. The analysis focuses on how various theatre events can empower children’s subjectivity and amplify their voices, addressing both human rights and children’s rights, while contributing to new political imagination and processes of transitional justice. The article also shows how, in theatre for young people, children’s histories and multigenerational experiences of violence intersect, highlighting how children remain continuous targets of various totalitarian and imperialistic wars. At the same time, these intersections reveal new and existing alliances, opening up the potential for a more hopeful future to be imagined.