Description: The Blue Rose, Lesia Ukrainka's first play presented here in a contemporary English translation, highlights women's struggles for liberation. Set in Ukraine at the turn of the twentieth century, it follows Liubov, who falls in love with Orest and proposes that they pursue "pure love," abandoning the traditions of marriage and motherhood.
Brief description: Lesia Ukrainka (pen name of Larysa Kosach-Kvitka, 1879-1913) was one of the most prominent Ukrainian writers, poets, playwrights, literary scholars, and activists of the late nineteenth-early twentieth century. Along with Taras Shevchenko and Ivan Franko, she forms the triumvirate of Ukrainian national poets. Ukrainka was well-known for her feminist and progressive views, which found representation in her own works.