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muriel_volestrangler

(101,157 posts)
Sat Jan 17, 2015, 10:40 AM Jan 2015

Russia’s Political Theatre

Teatr.doc is – or was – a small theatre in a basement a short walk from Tverskaya Street in the centre of Moscow. Not funded by the government, it has always done as it pleased. Its productions have included One Hour Eighteen, about Sergei Magnitsky, the accountant and auditor whose death in detention continues to haunt Russia (disclosure: my husband was in the cast), and BerlusPutin, an adaptation of a satire by Dario Fo. You could see a play about the fall of Constantinople one day, and go back the next evening to see a short comedy about how much young men hate the draft.

Since last year, anything showing the Ukrainian revolution in a positive or even neutral light has triggered official hysterics. Teatr.doc, true to its nature, ignored the rules: in March 2014, as Russia was annexing Crimea, it held a reading of a documentary play based on the Euromaidan.

In October, the theatre found out that it was being evicted for ‘unsanctioned alterations’ to the space (the alterations had been demanded by fire inspectors, but the authorities weren’t bothered about that). According to documents obtained by the artistic director, Yelena Gremina, the decision to evict Teatr.doc had been made in May. There were petitions and letters asking the authorities to change their minds and let the theatre stay, but without success. The theatre is moving to a new location. Renovations there are ongoing: playwrights, directors, actors and supporters are pitching in.

On 30 December, Teatr.doc was about to screen a documentary about the Euromaidan at its old location when the police burst in. They said there’d been a bomb threat. Friends who were there told me there were plainclothes officers in the audience before the uniforms arrived. There was confusion at first, and a half-hearted attempt to evacuate the building, before the officers changed tactics and began searching the place for ‘extremist materials’. Three people at the theatre were detained, questioned about the film, and let go.

http://www.lrb.co.uk/blog/2015/01/16/natalia-antonova/russias-political-theatre/
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Russia’s Political Theatre (Original Post) muriel_volestrangler Jan 2015 OP
A scholarly listserv I'm still on Igel Jan 2015 #1

Igel

(35,197 posts)
1. A scholarly listserv I'm still on
Sat Jan 17, 2015, 02:12 PM
Jan 2015

recently had a few posts inquiring about or advertising English-teaching gigs in Russia.

The overall tenor was, Is it safe?

The responses tended to be, Possibly. If you're white and can pass for Russian. If you have no political views. If you're in the right parts of the right towns and don't leave there.

Some of this wasn't new: For the last 25 years you haven't wanted to be African-American and in Russia. Even if you're fairly fluent in the language, it doesn't matter. You're a foreigner, or you're one of those privileged Patrice Lumumba characters, or you're a foreign businessman or out to get "their women", and the worst is you're a foreign American businessman out to get their women.

(listservs are still around--we Slavists and historical linguists are a motley lot; the Germanicist list is also still around, I think)

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