Hey Poopchik! Baba Raisa Tells You How to be Ukrainian

Compared to erotic games in the village bath and shoplifting live turkeys in your bloomers, refugee life is beyond boring. So Ukrainian Baba (grandma) is brewing up Old Country mayhem. Between magical encounters with Nature spirits and hilarious dating advice---“Grab both his ears, or you’ll be sorry!”---she confesses to ending both Nazis and an abusive husband with common kitchen items.

In a rollicking monologue as dark and playful as the Slavic soul, Baba will lead you into the goddess-centred culture of Eastern Europe’s Indigenous people. Enjoy a raunchy Cossack song or two, a lesson in How to Complain Like a Ukrainian, and a chilling traditional curse for Putin, “May you be kicked by a duck!”

Baba entertainingly relives ancient shamanic practices that sparked the original werewolf legend. Oral history is supplemented by Raisa’s diligent academic research into the work of neolithic anthropologists, and the records of Herodotus and Hippocrates. The latter described Ukraine’s Amazon warriors as bowlegged and smelling of horse, to which Baba responds, “What is problem here?”

She mocks MAGA with a fierceness that can only come from the proud Ukrainian intellects that developed x rays, immunology, helicopters, and the first European democratic constitution. Not to mention "Fight Club" and "Heart of Darkness." She has been avidly pursued by Chuck Palahniuk for the details of her cowgirl adventures.

Raisa spent decades collecting stories from survivors of Soviet and Holocaust terror, including her family. Baba is a composite of these invincible souls. Her interpretations are for the main part true, deepened by the complexity of her intersecting Ukrainian and Jewish roots. Her humorous cultural history book, “Baba’s Kitchen: Ukrainian Soul Food” has been a bestseller for ten years. It will be available at shows along with its follow up, plus hand beaded jewelry. The Ukrainian Canadian Congress specially selected this book as representative of the immigrant experience. It is also available at the Ukrainian Museum of Canada.

Deeply spiritual and satirical at once, Baba’s monologue and newest book relate her Halloween cemetery vigil in one of Canada’s secret gulags, a subarctic Slavic internment and slavery camp.

“I sat on the highway built by my own people, weeping. My little car rocked with each passing truck. The miserable graveyard beside the railroad tracks was inaccessible, its signage marred by a lurid yellow motel billboard. I finally tossed the sheaf of wheat I’d brought for the ancestors, into the adjoining ditch, knowing they’d understand. Maybe some kernels will sprout and form their own memorial.”

Baba would like to offer complimentary tickets to the creative partners swept up in her Victoria adventures: the Beaver Lake scuba diver whose air tank she mistook for a floating cooler while skinny dipping (she wasn’t trying to kill you; she just wanted a sandwich), and the Brad Pitt lookalike who drove her to the Elk Lake vet with an injured duck (sorry for the poop on your seatbelt). In the heat of the moment, she never learned your names.

And what is a Poopchik, anyway? Oi yoi yoi!

No latecomers after the show begins.

Credits

Created/written/produced by - Raisa Stone

About the Artist

Raisa Stone began performing as a toddler Houdini, escaping cribs on Sears commercials. She was a protégé of Ralph Cole (The Nylons). Her Baba stories were mentored by Lina de Guevara, and her comedy by Steve Allen, who placed her book in the Los Angeles Public Library. She is a Canada Council for the Arts designated professional in five categories. A Montreal Jubilation Gospel Choir alumna who has won New York City Opera and Banff Centre scholarships, Raisa is an environmental and animal advocate. She led the campaign to preserve Fernwood’s urban forest, trained her street-rescued Borys as Canada’s first service rabbit, and persuaded her MP to table her horse anti-slaughter petition slaughter.

Accessibility

Content warnings: Coarse language; adult themes; violence; sexual content; descriptions of war, internment & labour camps; mentions of sexualized & racialized violence; mentions of murder & suicide.

Sensory warnings: Loud sudden sounds; audience interaction/participation.

For more accessibility information see the Accessibility at the Fringe page on our website: https://intrepidtheatre.com/festivals/fringe-festival/accessibility/ 

Important Fringe Information:

You must have a Fringe Button to see this show. You can purchase your Fringe Button online or at the Intrepid Box Office. Online purchases can be picked up at the venue of your show.

100% of tickets are available in advance, no tickets reserved for door sales.

All tickets have a $2.00 Fringe service charge and passes have a $4 Fringe service charge, this supports the festival.

No refunds. No exchanges. If you are unwell contact the box office (tickets@intrepidtheatre.com).

All shows start on time. Depending on the show, latecomers may not be seated.

Masks are recommended.

• Event Types - Storytelling
• $0.00
• 21-August 23, 2025
• 60 minutes
• Intrepid Studio
• Fringe Venue 5
• Adults Only
• 
  Content warnings: Coarse language; adult themes; violence; sexual content; mentions of sexualized & racialized violence and murder & suicide. Sensory warnings: Loud sudden sounds; audience interaction/participation.