Actors hold Ukraine fundraiser at Burnham's 'The Gates of Chernobyl' performance

A play raising funds for the Ukraine relief effort is taking place in Burnham from February 21.

The Gates of Chernobyl, written by Burnham-based playwright Michael Pearcy, is set in Ukraine, 1992, and follows the country’s struggle to build independence from the then USSR occupation whilst dealing with the aftermath of the Chernobyl disaster.

The hour and a half long tale, taking place at Burnham Working Men’s Club at 7:30pm, is a read-through of the play, as Michael explained:

“It’s an hour and a half play, but a reading, it’s not a complete performance, but it’s still good fun, although serious, as you can imagine.

“I wrote it a year before the pandemic, and it was actually going to get it produced in a fringe theatre in London, but unfortunately lockdown happened and all that stuff got squashed.

“After lockdown the fringe theatres were very nervous, there was no money around and they couldn’t guarantee audiences. It was very hard to generate interest in this kind of project.

The Gates of Chernobyl did get some exposure, however - plus rave reviews from Time Out and the Ukrainian Cultural Association - when it took to the stage in Windsor and in a series of ‘shorts’ at Union Theatre London.

“The reason I am doing it on the 21st February is because it kind of marks the second anniversary of the invasion of Ukraine so I thought it was quite timely,” added Michael.

“The show is free and we will raise money for Ukrainian charities, for people displaced by the war.

“I thought that’s the least we can do.

“I think it’s important to keep things like this alive. If you don’t perform it in some way it just slips away and somebody might turn up and see it and say ‘let’s get that on the stage’.”