In the early days of Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine, the residents of a small co—op community outside of Kyiv find themselves in increasingly desperate circumstances, surrounded by occupying Russian forces. Pinched between Bucha and Borodianka, cut off from aid, and unable to escape, their attempts at survival rely on connection: a cellphone signal in the forest, their bonds with each other, and, ultimately, new understandings of what it means to be Ukrainian. Weaving Shakespeare with both Ukrainian literary classics and contemporary works, Volodymyr Rafeyenko’s
Signals of Being
stages a captivating dramatic interpretation of a country at war.