Eduard Boyakov: “Russian theater has fallen under the influence of non-traditional screenings, unsettled feminists and cutesy gays”
Eduard Boyakov
A photo: Oleg KOROLEV
On Tuesday, the special jury of the Golden Mask festival received the Theater of Results for the play Gorbachev staged by the Latvian director Alvis Hermanis. They say, Chairman of the STD Alexander Kalyagin personally requested this performance from the Congress competition: because of the anti-Russian position of Hermanis, because of Chulpan Khamatova, who performed in it. To avoid scandal, two weeks ago STD removed Gorbachev of the Season from the list of winners of the Moscow Gvozd theater award. But the directorate of “Mask” did not hear Kalyagin’s request.
The winner of the award (in the nomination of the best director) was Dmitry Krymovwho left for the USA. From Philadelphia, he asked to pass it to “The Mask” .. Dmitry Muratov, editor-in-chief of Novaya Gazeta. The story that was awarded by the director of the opera Salome (Bolshoi Theater) looked ridiculous. “Golden Mask” should receive the German Klaus Gut. But he is serving a return. Therefore, the directorate of the festival did not begin to award anyone, because they could not “not take into account the decision of Gut.” What miracles happen to the main Russian national theater award, we have chosen the director Eduard Boyakov, who stood at the origins of the Golden Mask.
– I created this project in the mid-90s, when the country was in ruins, when there were no connections between the theaters of the Russian regions. There was no Internet. Nobody really knew anything about each other. The task was to create a project that would unite the theaters of the country. A well-thought-out model was created. “Golden Mask” and now it works like a clock. And if to develop, then not to realize the festival, but its content. I don’t want to say that when I left The Mask and carefully handed it over to Maria Revyakina, everything went wrong. This, of course, is not true.
But twenty years ago the question arose of how the Russian theater would be conducted. Even then, he came to the attention of, to put it mildly, unconventional observations, when there were unsettled feminists and cutesy gays in the theater. The goal of the so-called creative elite is not a constant attitude to the collection of Russian culture and Russian theater.
For many years our entire cultural policy, which is absolutely colonial, has existed as an appendage of the West. An indicator of the success of a theater director is an invitation to the festival in Avignon. Like in the movies – an invitation to a festival in Cannes or Berlin.
In this sense The Golden Mask is no different from other liberal, pro-Western projects. And it’s not just about awarding the performance with the participation of Chulpan Khamatova, or director Dmitry Krymov, who went to America, or the puppet show “Khoja Nasreddin” by Timur Bekmambetov, who spoke out against special operations in Ukraine … Most of the so-called Russian elite gathered in much the same way like them, but is silent and does not speak out, often sit on two chairs.
I will say a seditious thing. I respect Kirill Serebrennikov and Chulpan Khamatova for their honest isolation, which they do not hide, and not for that mold, the fifth column that covers the whole country from the inside. They have all the resources in their hands. These people are in favor of cultural protection, which in reality is anti-state, Russophobic. This is such garbage in the pocket of our intelligentsia since Soviet times. Just today’s situation has opened this abscess. His review is awkward to stick with a band-aid.
Of course, the easiest way is to be indignant that the play “Gorbachev” directed by the Latvian director Alvis Hermanis received a special prize. But Hermanis is indeed a good director, who directed not only Gorbachev, but also the excellent Shukshin Stories. To resent something else: why was the only decent performance based on Shukshin staged by a Baltic director? We don’t have good directors of our own? It’s time to wake up and present your projects, from which you can see the attitude towards the country, whether you love it or hate it. We can count the patriots by facts: Gazmanov, Polina Gagarina and Baskov … And where are the rest?
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