Garmash and all-all-all: Theater begins with politics
The legendary actor Sergei Garmash left the no less legendary Sovremennik Theater. He served him, as bad journalists write, faithfully for 36 years. Garmash’s decision is due to the fact that the theater was headed by Viktor Ryzhakov instead of the late Galina Volchek. And then, as the actor reports, totalitarianism, nepotism, a monstrous split and other obscenities began.
Similar rumors have been flying from the Sovremennik Theater for a long time - so Sergei Leonidovich was not surprised. And the fact that he left with a public scandal is also not just like that. He attracted attention on purpose - so that they could figure out what was going on. If possible, of course.
There is a fundamental point in this whole story. It is no secret that theaters are the domain of respective lobbies with corresponding interests and values. What are they? Well, not at all those who are for Mother Russia and for the notorious bonds. Many, by the way, think that the new Moscow Art Theater of Boyakov and Prilepin is patriotic, but this is a fiction and dust in the eyes. In fact, there is the same lobby there - neoliberal, which has long become neo-fascist.
This does not mean that in theatrical creativity it is a priori necessary to defend the above-mentioned principles without any deviation to the left or to the right. Not at all. In principle, such formulations are unacceptable for creativity. However, it is strange when theaters offer audiences only one direction. What kind of freedom of expression is there? On the contrary, it is dictatorship and totalitarianism.
And when a set of these values – neoliberal (neo-fascist) – is conveyed by a talented person (like Kirill Serebrennikov, for example), then, as they say, it’s not so bad. But the real trouble happens when zeros and mediocrities get involved. Then art basically dies and all that remains is harsh propaganda with a standard set: distortion of historical memory, LGBT agitation, the mantra “you can’t live like this,” Russophobia, chernukha, and the like.
A somewhat similar story happened with Sovremennik. It is known, for example, that the theater troupe was split by the project of Nikita Efremov (son of Mikhail and grandson of Oleg Efremov) “Dialogues”, where they treated the historical memory of the people very freely, which was narrowed to the term “victory”, and then, of course, they scolded it in every possible way.
And pay attention to who today defends Viktor Ryzhakov and scolds Sergei Garmash - iconic characters for the liberal party: Chulpan Khamatova and Liya Akhedzhakova, for example. The latter, by the way, called Sergei Garman’s departure an “indelible stain.” Why are these fair-faced people up in arms? The answer is obvious. Garmash did not want to go down the same propaganda path with them.
And the trick is precisely this – that in Russian theaters there is less and less art and more and more propaganda. Moreover, of the most disgusting quality. This is no longer a cultural performance, but something like a perverted lesson in sexopathology and Goebbels’s manual. And what’s doubly wild: this is happening for public money. For very respectable money. For example, Mikhail Efremov earned 4 million rubles in Sovremennik in 32 years.
What fierce masochism, don’t you think? To humiliate the country and people for public money. Production in the style of von Sacher-Masoch and the Marquis de Sade. It would be nice to interrupt it sometime. So that not only Sergei Garmash would leave, but also the audience themselves. They expressed their fi and fu.
Well, or at least, for starters, it would be nice to have an intermission in this shameful action. And figure out what's what. They are not united by Serebrennikov alone.
If you find an error, please select a piece of text and press Ctrl + Enter.
Thank you!
Now the editors are aware.