Natalka Vorozhbyt’s Green Corridors, a series of vignettes revolving around four Ukrainian women fleeing their war-torn land, works better as a showcase for City Garage’s unique style and sensibility than as a play for those who prefer more traditional linear realism to existential dreamscape theater.

We first meet the play’s four refugee heroines “Waiting In Line To Go To Europe” as each gets drilled by a Customs Officer (Ricky Lee Grove) as to her reasons for leaving Ukraine.

First in line is Cat Lover (Martha Duncan), an older woman accompanied by two of her beloved felines which she’s kept sedated in a carrying case for the past three days since the volunteers who led her out of Chernihiv refused to let her take her pets with her.

Next up is Housewife (Alicia Ivanhoe), seeking safety for her three children as her husband, a computer programmer turned spotter, stays behind to fight the Russian invaders.

Manicurist (Georgia Orchid) reveals nothing at first (indeed, the Customs Officer lets her pass with only a quick glance at her documents), but we soon learn that she has been brutally raped and tortured by Russian soldiers before being allowed to leave Ukraine.

Last to pass customs is Actress (Angela Beyer), a glamorous stage-and-screen star whose roles have ranged from Russian seductresses to real-life Ukrainian heroes and who hopes now to inform the world about the country she calls home.

Cameo players include Cruz St. James’s Social Worker, Producer, and European Woman; Eric Trosch’s Canadian Citizen and Newscaster #1; Dennis Kimmel’s Customs Officer #2 and Newscaster #2; and Grove doubling as the Director of three of Actress’s movies featuring St. James, Trosch, and Kimmel as actors with whom she has shared the screen.

If it’s not already clear, that’s a lot of characters to keep track of, and Green Corridors’ episodic structure doesn’t make that any easier, nor does it help that the play presumes a knowledge of Ukrainian history that few in the audience are likely to possess or that in a number of instances I wasn’t sure what exactly was going on.

For all of these reasons, I found my mind wandering even as I was once again impressed by director Frédérique Michel’s visually striking staging and by City Garage’s embrace of absurdist (and more specifically European) theater that would otherwise go unseen by L.A audiences.

Indeed, any City Garage regular can tell from the play’s stunningly staged opening sequence, one that has our four female protagonists trudging towards the Ukraine/Poland border, suitcases in hand, a trek that already seems never-ending from the get-go, that Green Corridors is in the hands of a stylistic one-of-a-kinder.

The entire cast of City Garage vets (like the always remarkable Beyer) and newbies commit entirely to Michel’s vision and to the roles they play. (The movies-within-the-play sequences are probably my favorites.)

Charles A. Duncombe once again wears three design hats, his set, lighting, and audio design complementing Michel’s directorial vision as do Josephine Poinsot’s multitude of character-defining costumes and Anthony Sannazzaro’s video/projection designs.

Green Corridors has been translated into English by John Freedman with Nataliia Bratus. Holly Dunnigan is assistant director.

Though I personally prefer City Garage in a more realistic, linear mode (like the Neil LaBute originals and adaptations they’ve featured in recent seasons), even when a play n’est pas ma tasse de thé, I can’t help appreciating how unique its vision is. Case in point, Green Corridors.

City Garage, 2525 Michigan Ave. Building T1, Santa Monica. Through September 27. Fridays and Saturdays at 8:00. Sundays at 4:00.
www.citygarage.org

–Steven Stanley
August 23, 2026
Photos: Paul Rubenstein

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Tags: City Garage, Los Angeles Theater Review, Natalka Vorozhbyt