Russian attacks on Gogol Center continue

The Russian state attack on Gogol Center and those who have been involved in its finances took a sharp turn a few days ago when former managing director Alexei Malobrodsky was arrested (yes, actually arrested and is being held in detention while on trial). Also in jail while being investigated and tried is former bookkeeper Nina Maslyaeva. Yury Itin, formerly the general director of the Seventh Studio, an entity that was part of Gogol Center but was based for three years in the Platforma space, is under house arrest while being investigated and tried. Kirill Serebrennikov, for the time being, appears to be out of the picture of the investigation, but the situation is ongoing, fluid, and "absurd," as Serebrennikov writes in a recent Facebook entry. Below I provide a translation of that entry, republished on TeatralOnline, I also follow Serebrennikov's comments with some clarification of the case as it currrently stands by TeatralOnline:

"Dear friends! We all need help in this absurd schizophrenic situation. We must prove that the Platform project really did exist. 100 posters of original events, created by us over a three year period, may not be sufficient to convince those whom we must convince. Maybe the testimonies, memories and impressions of spectators at Platform will prove that I and all our team at the Seventh Studio devoted three years of our lives to it. It is especially important to recall the production "A Midsummer Night's Dream," which we played at Platform more than 15 times, before playing it in Paris at the Theater of Chaillot, then playing it at the Baltic House festival. It was nominated for all sorts of theater awards... Now we are told by investigators from the Investigative Committee that it does not and never did exist!!!!! And for the fact that it never was and never did exist, Aleksei Malobrodsky has been imprisoned and those who created Platform are being persecuted!!! We need your help to put and end to this absurdity as quickly as possible. The next series of performances of "A Midsummer Night's Dream" runs at Gogol Center from July 3 to 8. We will begin it with a statement about the innocence of our comrades who are in trouble."

From TeatralOnline:

We remind you that on Wednesday, June 21, the Presnensky District Court arrested the former managing director of Gogol Center and former general producer of the Seventh Studio Aleksei Malobrodsky, who was, along with a group of people, charged with fraud in particularly large amounts (part 4, article 159 CC RF). Malobrodsky was detained on Monday, June 19, in the case pertaining to embezzlement of budget funds allocated to Seventh Studio, an autonomous, non-profit organization for the development and promotion of contemporary art in 2011-2014.

At the court session, the prosecution stated that the funds allocated to Seventh Studio for the performance "A Midsummer Night's Dream" had been stolen, which, as a result, was never staged.

Malobrodsky did not admit his guilt. He noted that "Midsummer Night's Dream" has been in repertory at Gogol Center since 2012, and thousands of spectators have since attended the show. The defense presented reviews of the performance published in the media, but these arguments did not impress the prosecutor.

For good measure I post here the review that I wrote of the production for The Moscow Times:

Serebrennikov Delivers Stunning 'Midsummer's'

13 December 2012 | Issue 5034

By John Freedman

Who would have guessed it, that by the beginning of winter the most popular play in Moscow would be "A Midsummer Night's Dream?"

Dmitry Krymov unveiled a spectacular and playful production of a fragment from this play in October at the School of Dramatic Art, and now Kirill Serebrennikov, working out of his own Seventh Studio in the Platforma project at the Winzavod complex, has put together a sometimes stunning version of the entire work.

I purposefully avoid calling it a "comedy" because Serebrennikov reaches deep into the darker corners of this tale about wood sprites, royalty and commoners cavorting about a forest in search of love and entertainment. There is plenty to laugh about as lovers pine, magic transforms personalities beyond recognition, and gods and people both make utter fools of themselves. But if Shakespeare used these common eventualities to poke fun at the human condition, Serebrennikov brings another aspect back into focus: Human follies are also often cruel, bloody and fatal.

Aided by dramaturg Valery Pecheikin and taking on the role of designer himself, the director pulled the tale apart and reassembled it, giving us four distinct narratives: The Story of Gods, The Story of People, The Story of Rulers, and The Story of Workers. They transpire on three different stages, the audience following the performers from place to place and back again.

Things commence in a broken-down greenhouse, the kind you might find at someone's dacha in the country. Broken panes of glass are tucked into weathered wooden frames and supports to create a kind of transparent mosaic. The audience sits around this object and watches as, inside, the stylish king and queen of the fairies plot some fun with Puck, performed here by numerous actors who turn the hobgoblin into a veritable army of sexually ambiguous individuals.

From there we move into another hall where sharply raked bleachers provide us with a bird's-eye-view of events involving the lovers Helena (Alexandra Revenko), Hermia (Maria Poyezzhayeva), Lysander (Rinal Mukhametov) and Demetrius (Ivan Fominov). The setting here is a schoolroom with trash bins nearby, supporting Serebrennikov's rendition of it as a super contemporary, and largely traditional, story of libido-laden youngsters.

The same hall, redesigned as something resembling a psychiatrist's office, hosts the third segment, a consideration of the relationship between Theseus, the Duke of Athens, and his fiancee Hippolyta. Perhaps suffering from split personality disorders, they are played by two pairs of actors (Artur Beschastny and Ilya Romashko as Theseus, and Yana Irtenyeva and Yekaterina Steblina as Hippolyta).

This is where Serebrennikov's version takes its first sharp turn into the dark recesses underlying Shakespeare's play.

These two couples are too modern, too rich, too full of power for their own good. A sickness has invaded their romantic life, one in which dominance, humiliation and perversion are accepted as the norm. Any of their attempts to talk of "love" ring fake, rude or both. Violence, forced indignities and profound distrust replace traditional caresses or sweet talk.

There are a few moments when one suspects Serebrennikov wallows in the sickness of the events, rather than engaging it in a dialogue. This is particularly true when he has one of the women assume the pose of the cross as she is debased by her lover. Rather than seem subversive, it seems cheap and obvious.

But whatever doubts this scene may raise, the final segment of the craftsmen performing the play of Pyramus and Thisbe completely dispels them. After witnessing a prologue back in the greenhouse, the audience is invited into still another space, a huge hall almost filled with a round platform. As spectators gather around it and occasionally are encouraged to participate in small ways, the play-within-the-play unfolds primarily through the beautiful choreography of Anna Abalikhina.

Here the bumbling workers are reborn, to some extent, as artists of heightened sensitivity. The tale of Pyramus and Thisbe becomes their own and they embrace the tragedy of the doomed lovers fully.

It is a transformative scene that wipes out doubts and frustrations, which this long, nearly four-hour performance sometimes provokes. Structurally it is offered as something of an epilogue, although this is the segment that pulls the entire piece together and makes sense of it.

The image of Nikita Kukushkin as Pyramus and Filipp Avdeyev as Thisbe circling the stage in their death throes is quite unforgettable. What Shakespeare intended as lighthearted parody, Serebrennikov convincingly and beautifully delivers as full-on tragedy.

"A Midsummer Night's Dream" (Son v Letnyuyu Noch) plays Dec. 21-23, 25, 26, Jan. 7, 8, 9. at 8 p.m. at Winzavod. 1 4th Syromyatnichesky Pereulok, Bldg. 6. Metro Kurskaya. Tel. (495) 917-4646. www.winzavod.ru. Running time: 3 hours, 40 min.