We give characterizations of the distributional derivatives $D^{1,1}$, $D^{1,0}$, $D^{0,1}$ of functions of two variables of locally finite variation. Then we use these results to prove the existence theorem for the hyperbolic equation with a nonhomogeneous term containing the distributional derivative determined by an additive function of an interval of finite variation. An application of the above theorem to a hyperbolic equation with an impulse effect is also given.