Theatre Calgary is proud to open the 2026-27 season with a true-story of love in the face of a global pandemic and an invasion, in First Métis Man of Odesa. Produced by Punctuate! Theatre and directed by Lianna Makuch, the show is written and performed by Matthew MacKenzie and Mariya Khomutova who tell the story of their courtship and falling in love. After meeting while on a theatre trip in Kyiv, Matthew, a Métis playwright from Alberta, and Masha, a Ukrainian artist from Odesa, begin a romance that takes them from the Black Sea to the North Saskatchewan River. In the midst of this, they are tested by the onset of a global pandemic and the eruption of war in Ukraine, yet they still capture moments of joy, including their marriage, and the birth of their son, Ivan.
Playwright and performer Khomutova recalls how she and MacKenzie met.
"When I first met Matthew in Kyiv in 2018, neither of us imagined that a small documentary theatre workshop would change the course of our lives. He came to Ukraine to conduct interviews with people affected by the war in Eastern Ukraine. I came believing that theatre existed somewhere above politics. To our surprise, we found love,” says Khomutova. “First Métis Man of Odesa began as an attempt to understand how two people from opposite sides of the world could find each other. The events in this play are drawn from our own lives. Many conversations happened exactly as you'll hear them. Others have been reshaped by memory, humour, and the strange logic of storytelling,” she adds.
Since its premiere at Western Canada Theatre in 2023, First Métis Man of Odesa has been produced at numerous Canadian theatres including the Royal Manitoba Theatre Centre, Soulpepper Theatre, and the National Arts Centre. In 2024, it was the recipient of three Dora Mavor Moore Awards, including Outstanding Production, Outstanding New Work, and Outstanding Direction (Makuch).
For director Makuch, she has literally been with this story the entire way.
“I have been witness to Matt and Masha’s love story from the beginning. It is only fitting that these two theatrical romantics would fatefully meet through the theatre. It was at a workshop of my play Barvinok in Kyiv that Matt and Masha first met in 2018. Matt was my dramaturg, and Mariya a workshop actor. The rest is history,” says Makuch. “Like any grand, sweeping love story, this one shows us that not even the greatest obstacles, like the most evil forces of war, can taint true love. Matt and Masha’s son, Ivan, is a reminder of this unbreakable spirit. Ivan is a beautiful union of two cultures whose love has created a symbol of the kind of future we are fighting for.”
The story and union between MacKenzie and Khomutova is why Theatre Calgary’s Artistic Director Stafford Arima chose to open with this show. “This season, the idea connecting our shows is family: the families we inherit, the families we create, and the people we hold onto when the world around us changes. We can think of no more powerful way to begin that journey than First Métis Man of Odesa,” says Arima. “At its heart, it is a story of love and resilience, distance and belonging, identity and home, and the lengths we travel for family.”
First Métis Man of Odesa runs September 8 - 27 in Werklund Centre’s Martha Cohen Theatre. Tickets start as low as $30 for all regular performances, and can be purchased online at theatrecalgary.com.