The Sovremennik Theater confirmed the dismissal of popular artist Liya Akhedzhakova. According to the theater’s press service, she resigned voluntarily. This was preceded by her stepping back from the role in the only performance she continued to star in. The Eastern Herald Special Envoy Alexei Krizhevsky recalls the events leading up to Akhedzhakova’s dismissal and reflects on the future of what was once Moscow’s boldest theatre.
of your own free will
Leah Akhedzhakova was fired from the Sovremennik Theater. The official announcement of this finally officially confirmed what de facto happened some time ago. Then she was removed from her role in the play “The Genie Game” by the decision of theater director Yuri Kravets.
This was the last production of the theatrical repertoire in which the popular artist was employed. John Lee Coburn’s play about old age and loneliness for two actors was directed by Galina Volchek in 2013. Akhedzhakova’s partner was actor Vasily Bochkarev.
As the actress herself said, the director called her to a conversation in the office and announced his decision, saying that the theater received many angry calls that Akhedzhakova, allegedly opposed in mind, keep going on stage. After the actress was pulled from the stage, the theater’s press department first announced in March that no one was going to fire her from the theater. And then even that she is supposed to rehearse new material.
Now, the background of the information has finally cleared up, and the official representatives of the theater who have come out from under the information smokescreen have finally honestly confirmed the dismissal with the wording “of their own free will”.
However, this is just the tip of the iceberg. To better understand what happened, it is worth recalling the chronology of events that unfolded with this once high-profile theater, which could lead to the current resignation already documented.
First problems
People’s Artist of the USSR Galina Volchek (center) Igor Ivanko / Moskva Agency
After the death of Galina Volchek, the theater’s longtime co-founder and artistic director, Viktor Ryzhakov headed Sovremennik. He rose to this position from the position of Artistic Director of the Center. Meyerhold, a leading and in many ways innovative platform, has now literally merged with the School of Drama Theater. He combined his position with the direction of the Juliansambl studio and teaching at the Moscow Art Theater School-Studio.
Under Ryzhakov, the theater was significantly updated – both visually (new slogans and a new identity were developed) and essentially. The resounding Lyubimovka Festival of Modern Theater has moved here from the cellars of Theatre.doc, and the repertoire has been significantly updated.
The right to the first premiere of his new play “Evidence” was given to “Sovremennik” by Dmitry Danilov, probably the most popular prose writer and playwright today, the author of the hit “The Man from Podolsk”. It was directed by a young director Ivan Komarov – one of the main elements of Ryzhakov’s artistic policy was the attraction of young executives.
The same rule worked in the case of the play “First Bread”, which became the source of many problems for the theater. It was directed by a young director Benjamin Kots, and the same young playwright Rinat Tashimov became the author of the play. In the production, which is set in a remote Russian province where Tatars and Uzbeks live, Akhedzhakova got the role of an eccentric, half-mad grandmother who, like a jester in medieval tales, due to her madness gets the right to talk sometimes ugly, but the truth.
At one point, the heroine of Akhedzhakova, drunk according to the script, comes to the cemetery and delivers a monologue addressed to the compatriots who died in vain in the Chechen wars. She is outraged that her grandson also wants to “wage war”.
The performance became the pretext for a big scandal that broke out in July 2021. Even before the premiere, immediately after the first broadcast, the organization “Officers of Russia” filed a request with the UK asking to verify the performance for “insulting veterans” – and it is a criminal offense in our country.
The self-proclaimed SERB patriotic movement, which has already interfered in other shows it disliked, has pledged to prevent the play from opening in September. As part of the check, Akhedzhakova was summoned for questioning by investigators.
Actress Liya AkhedzhakovaAlexander Avilov / Moskva Agency
In September, the performance was returned to the repertoire, after the swearing was removed, and in October the test was completed. True, the news of its completion did not cause a storm of excitement. And in vain, because the investigators came to the conclusion that the elements of the offense had not been revealed during the audit. During the 2021/2022 season, the play was re-performed several times, with many screenings accompanied by tense parallel events: wreaths were brought to one of the performances, and tear gas was threatened to disrupt it another one.
Art advice from a
In July 2022, Viktor Ryzhakov was removed from his position as artistic director on the same day as the founder and artistic director of the School of Modern Play, Iosif Raichelgauz, and the director of the Gogol Center, Alexei Agranovich. And with the same wording – in connection with the expiration of the contract.
It is worth dwelling on this in more detail. If Ryzhakov’s colleagues were replaced by other people, then in Sovremennik the power passed to the artistic council, consisting of actors, directors and other creative employees of the theater. This decision surprised – but only those who do not know the history of this theater. This is how the theater was run de facto in the first years of its life, when a team of angry young people, including Oleg Tabakov, Galina Volchek, Evgeny Evstigneev, created this legendary place. True, the theater still had an artistic director – this position was occupied by Oleg Efremov from the first days of its existence.
After Ryzhakov’s dismissal, Alena Babenko, Sergey Girin, Svetlana Ivanova, Lyudmila Krylova, Polina Rashkina, Ivan Stebunov, Alexander Khovansky became the collective creative body, and Vladislav Vetrov became the president. It is logical to suppose that it is this body, which one could call the collective artistic director, which should have taken the decision both to withdraw the performance from the repertoire and to withdraw or dismiss the artist. Above all, in the true sense of the word, popular and well-deserved, as in the case of Akhedzhakova.
However, there has not been a single report in the press about the artistic council’s decisions on this matter. One can ironically assume that the creative units included in it have signed some kind of “non-disclosure agreement”. Or they just didn’t care.
The fact remains: according to Akhedzhakova, both the very decision to withdraw her, and, say, the motivational part of it, were announced to her by Yuri Kravets. Most likely, it was his – and only his – decision.
Shot in the leg
Directed by Kirill SerebrennikovMarcus Brandt / DPA / Picture Alliance / TASS
Former employees of the aforementioned Gogol Center – or rather its ex-artistic director Kirill Serebrennikov – launched a flash mob in response, in which all those who appreciate the actress and her roles in theater and cinema were invited write him a thank you letter. to a special address. There were about 15,000. The letters were printed, packaged in two large volumes and delivered to Akhedzhakova.
The actress expressed her gratitude for this initiative and spoke about the difficult farewell to the stage. Thus, the legal wording that the dismissal took place (one can imagine the “own desire” of an actress who worked for decades in the big theater – even if her greatness is partly left to the past), and the fear expressed by Yuri Kravets in connection with public anger ( 15,000 letters say the opposite) can be questioned.
Here, perhaps, it is worth leaving aside, without joking, the righteous anger about the ethics of removing from the stage such a well-deserved and beloved artist by the public. Sweep away the bitter irony of fear that the once (60-70 years ago) most daring Moscow theater feels because of the threats of angry spectators. And speak only of business, that is to say of pure pragmatics.
And the pragmatics is that any producer of any theater in Russia and the world, having in his troupe a star of the level of Akhedzhakova, whose films and roles remind us of past and present times, will cling and will cling to her literally with the teeth. Stand firm even if the founder demands to fire or suspend such an artist. Anything else is a blow to the theater’s budget and ultimately the box office. But if with his first decision to remove Akhedzhakova from the stage, the director of the theater shot himself and at the same time the whole Sovremennik in the leg, now he fired a whole burst of machine guns.
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