Theatre of War: how the invasion of Ukraine is crushing Russia’s once vibrant theatrical world
With innovative new productions removed from the repertoires of Russia’s theatres, critics say the art that is starting to fill the space left behind, looks increasingly like state propaganda.
By Amalia Zatari.
The war in Ukraine has had a catastrophic impact on Russia’s rich theatrical world. Directors, actors, playwrights, choreographers and musicians have been sacked for opposing the war, and many theatre professionals have left the country. Innovative new plays and productions have been removed from the repertoires of Russia’s theatres, and critics say the art that’s filling the space left behind, looks increasingly like state propaganda.
On the day Vladimir Putin launched his invasion of Ukraine, 13 prominent Russians from the world of arts and culture signed an open letter condemning the actions of their president.
“We do not want our children to live in an aggressor country, to be ashamed that their army attacked a neighbouring independent state,” the letter read. “We call on all Russian citizens to say no to this war.”
Among the signatories was the actress Chulpan Khamatova, well known for her work in cinema and theatre, she also runs a charitable foundation for sick children.
Shortly after the letter was published, Khamatova, who was on holiday in the Seychelles, received a phone call from a lawyer acquaintance. The message the lawyer had for her was clear – if you want to come back to Russia, take your name off that letter and don’t make any more statements.
Khamatova decided not to return to Russia and she moved to Latvia instead. In the meantime, the Moscow theatre where she had worked for nearly 25 years, the Sovremennik, was told to find a way to let her go. On 23 March, she offered her resignation.
Khamatova’s story is not unusual. Hundreds of theatre professionals have left Russia since the start of the war, and many prominent and lesser known names have disappeared from theatre posters and billings all over the country. Those who remain say that they must heavily self-censor to comply with Russia’s strict wartime laws, crushing their ability to work freely and perhaps worse think creatively. This has led many, both in the Russia and beyond, to fear for the future of Russian Theatre altogether.
BBC is blocked in Russia. We’ve attached the story in Russian as a pdf file for readers there.
Dismissals
Two days after the start of the Russian invasion, Elena Kovalskaya, the director of the state-funded Meyerhold Center (CIM) in Moscow, announced her resignation. “[It’s] impossible to work for a murderer and receive a salary from him,” she wrote on her Facebook page.
Dmitry Volkostrelov, the centre’s artistic director, decided not to resign, but instead to write a statement opposing the war which was posted on the Meyerhold Center’s social media channels.
The following Monday, both Kovalskaya and Volkostrelov went to the Moscow Department of Culture. Kovalskaya to hand in her resignation statement, and Volkostrelov to discuss the future work of the company and suggest potential candidates for the director position.
The representatives from the department initially expressed respect for Kovalskaya’s position, but the conversation quickly turned to identifying who had posted the anti-war message on CIM’s social media. Later the same day Volkostrelov was called back for another meeting, this time alone. On his arrival he was told he was being sacked.
In late June 2022, the Moscow Department of Culture announced it was replacing the leaders of three big Moscow theatres simultaneously – the Sovremennik Theatre, the School of Modern Playwriting, and the Gogol Center (which later reverted to its old name, the Gogol Theatre).
According to Chulpan Khamatova (who by now had left her employment at the theatre) the controversy centred around Lia Akhedzhakova, the hugely popular veteran theatre and cinema actress, already well known for her outspoken criticism of the political situation in Russia, and now a vocal critic of the war in Ukraine.
The then artistic director of the Sovremennik, Viktor Ryzhakov, had been told to cancel performances of a production of Peter Pan that Akhedzhakova was appearing in at the theatre. When he resisted pressure to fire the 85-year-old actress, he was himself dismissed.
Viktor Ryzhakov did not respond to the BBC’s request for comment.
The premiere of Peter Pan at the Sovremennik never happened, and later in the autumn of 2022 and early 2023 further performances starring Akhedzhakova were also cancelled. In the end, the actress resigned from the theatre where she had worked for over half her life.
The new director of Sovremennik, Yuri Kravets, did not respond to the BBC’s inquiries about the circumstances of Akhedzhakova’s departure from the theatre.
Lia Akhedzhakova also declined to answer questions from the BBC. “I’m not free, I’m sorry,” the actress said. She continues to live in Russia, although she is not currently performing in any productions.
Cancellations
A few days after the start of Russia’s invasion, award-winning theatre and opera director, Timofey Kulyabin, spoke out against the war and resigned from his post as chief director of the Red Torch theatre in Novosibirsk. He was in Prague at the time and has not returned to Russia since.
Kulyabin is no stranger to controversy and his case is a reminder that even before the war in Ukraine outspoken and avant garde theatre directors could find themselves in trouble with the authorities.
In 2015 Kulyabin made headlines when his modern-day staging of the Wagner opera Tannhauser attracted huge criticism from the Russian Orthodox Church. The row resulted in the Red Torch theatre’s director being sacked and Kulyabin at one stage facing criminal charges.
At the end of 2022, the Red Torch management removed all Kulyabin’s productions from their repertoire, and his father, Aleksandr Kulyabin, who had been a director at the theatre for 23 years was sacked. Kulyabin senior has since been detained on charges of ‘embezzlement on an especially large scale’. He is currently under house arrest and denies any wrongdoing. Timofey Kulyabin says he’s sure his father’s case is the direct result of his own anti-war statements.
Censorship
The Russian theatre industry magazine ‘Teatr’ has been chronicling the impact of the war in Ukraine on the theatrical landscape.
Their reporting makes sobering reading.
Since the start of the invasion on February 24, 2022, over 30 artistic leaders, directors, artistic directors, chief directors, and conductors, all in senior positions have either been fired or have resigned. And more than 60 theatre performances have been cancelled across the country.
Theatre professionals who have expressed their opposition to the invasion of Ukraine are no longer offered work. Theatre expert Kristina Matvienko, says it’s clear that black lists are beginning to operate.
“There are certain stages,” reflects Chulpan Khamatova. “First, they remove those who speak out loudly, that way others who might speak out will keep quiet. The next stage comes when everyone just keeps quiet. If you didn’t speak out before, you are definitely going to keep [your] silence now.”
Repression
At the beginning of May 2023 news broke of a case which seemed to take pressure on the theatre to a new level.
Director Zhenya Berkovich and screenwriter Svetlana Petriychuk were both arrested and charged with supporting terrorism. The charges were brought as a result of the stagging of Petriychuk’s play “Finist the Bright Falcon,” which tells the story of Russian women who went to Syria to become wives of fighters from the so-called Islamic State, a group which is recognized as a terrorist organization and banned in Russia. The play was first performed at the end of 2020, three years earlier, so what had changed?
Colleagues believe the real reason for starting a case against an old play was the anti-war position of its authors. Berkovich has openly and frequently spoken out against the war on social media, and Petriychuk’s husband, the director and playwright Yuri Shekhvatov, held an anti-war protest in Moscow on the first day of the invasion of Ukraine resulting in his arrest and detention for several weeks.
An open letter written in support of Berkovich and Petriychuk was signed by more than 5000 people. But according to Chulpan Khamatova, few people in the theatre community appeared willing to speak out about what was happening.
“I felt very bitter to realize that there was no professional solidarity in our ranks,” she says. “Everyone had their reasons for not standing up [for them]: someone was finishing filming a movie, someone had a small child, someone said that ‘there’s no smoke without fire’.”
The Future
Despite the upheaval, theatrical life is nonetheless continuing, and for many theatres it’s still “business as usual,” says Kristina Matvienko.
But it’s a new kind of normal.
“You can ignore everything as if nothing has happened,” she continues. “Theatrical life doesn’t stop, it remains within a bubble, but it is now coupled with fear and the reluctance to lose jobs or the desire to protect the troupe from potential sanctions.”
And the continuing exodus of both actors and directors is clearly taking its toll.
Anastasia Patlay has directed many productions at Teatr.doc, a small alternative theatre company in Moscow.
Long before the war, Teatr.doc was the target of protests by pro-Kremlin activists who objected to their edgy and often politically-themed productions. Since the start of the war the theatre has lost two actors to mobilisation. It’s had a big effect on the troupe. “All the guys are leaving now,” says Patlay. She herself has also left Russia and is now based in Europe.
The situation has left Dmitry Volkostrelov, from the Meyerhold Center, feeling pessimistic about the future.
“I think that everything will gradually deteriorate now,” he says, pointing out that not only are so many prominent people leaving the stage, but the current situation means there are less chances for new voices to emerge.
The authorities are trying to turn the theatre into their ideological instrument, says Anastasia Patlay.
She cites the example of Yevgeny Mironov, a well-known actor and director who signed the letter calling for ‘special military operation’ in Ukraine to stop. Despite this, he agreed to make two visits to occupied Donetsk and Mariupol with a senior official from the United Russia party last year. The Theatre of Nations, where he is the artistic director, also provided its stage for a theatre collective from Donbas.
“They use them because they are famous, to show [to us] who is in power here. They want to make them complicit in the crimes committed by the state. Not symbolically divide the responsibility but…impose this responsibility on them, from which, of course, they won't be able to wash themselves clean later,” says Patlay.
As if to prove her point, at the beginning of this year by the National Association of Playwrights in collaboration with the Russian Ministry of Defence announced a new competition, a callout for plays about the Donbas.
The first play was staged in Moscow in May of this year, based on the plays of two finalists of this competition one from Luhansk and one from Sevastopol, in Crimea (annexed by Russia in 2014).
“Budgets will be allocated for this, and other similar competitions will be held, where tons of propagandistic material will be written,” Patlay continues. “I can imagine that among them, there might be some talented and honest texts, even about the DPR or LPR. Again, the history of Soviet art, literature, and drama shows that through all this mess, some flowers may bloom, some talented authors may write something important in an Aesopian or non-Aesopian language. But that doesn't mean it's all good, because it's an ideological order.”
Dmitry Volkostrelov says he’s been shocked by the speed of the changes in Russia’s theatrical world over the past year and a half and he’s clearly bracing himself for more to come.
“Every time, it's unclear where the bottom line is,” he says. “Given what happened to Zhenya [Berkovich] and Svetlana [Petriychuk], I still can't understand, what the bottom line will look like.”
Volkostrelov himself remains in Russia and does not want to leave the country.
Art by Denis Korolev.
Read the full story in Russian here.
Abridged English version edited by William Edelsten and Jenny Norton.
