Puppet of an Old woman, from the Mezhyhirya vertep

In 1923, a political vertep (or Revolutionary Puppet Theater) appeared at the Mezhyhirya Art and Ceramic Technical School (which located on the territory of the Mezhyhirya monastery, where the Boychukists worked). The initiators were students and teachers of the school, among them was Pavlo Gorbenko. The traditional Ukrainian vertep was radically redesigned. To interest the rural audience, the puppets was made of bizarre, unknown shape. The repertoire of the Mezhyhirya Puppet Theater was not limited to the scenes dedicated to the events of international political life. One of the most important propaganda tasks of the Soviet era was to overcome religious influence. At the end of P. Gorbenko’s book “Revolutionary Puppet Theater“ , is the one surviving play of the Theater “Holiday in Paradise”. Its main task was to desecrate the church by exposing its shortcomings, dehumanizing its active adherents and clergy, and ridiculing the saints, angels, and God. The anti-religious character of the production was enhanced by the symbolism of the traditional Ukrainian nativity scene. The latter had two floors - sacred above and profane (secular) - below. The creators of the chest for Mezhyhirya vertep have abandoned the traditional two floors, and there is no upper floor in it. Among the main characters was "Old women Marina from Petrivtsi." This person was a real character who was engaged in home moonshine . This caused laughter and applause from peasants from the surrounding villages of Mezhyhirya. The play was written in the tradition of folk satirical theater, filled with Ukrainian humor, with songs performed by the choir. Among the characters were the Lord God, the Archangel Gabriel, Saints Jonah, Nicholas, Basil, Nikita, as well as the Virgin, the Widow and others.