The play “Cyrano de Bergerac” was canceled for allegedly “discrediting the Supreme Court”

The Alexandrinsky Theater in St. Petersburg canceled the performances of the play “Cyrano de Bergerac” scheduled for April and May. The announcement was published on the theater’s website. Earlier, the portal 78.ru wrote that one of the spectators turned to the police with a request to check the performance for the so-called discrediting of the Russian army. What exactly in the classic play the audience considered discrediting was not specified.

The actors of the theater told the St. Petersburg publication “Rotonda” that the inspection had indeed taken place, but the police did not find any signs of a crime. Nevertheless, the performances scheduled for April and May were canceled. Instead, they will show “The Crow” based on Carlo Gozzi’s play and “Marriage” based on Nikolai Gogol’s play. The press service of the “Rotonde” theater stated that “problems with the props” were the formal reason for the cancellation of the performances.

The play “Cyrano de Bergerac” was written by the French playwright Edmond Rostan in 1897 and tells about the Parisian poet’s love for his cousin Roxane, to whom he is afraid to confess his feelings. The performance at the Alexandrinsky Theater was staged by the main director Nikolay Roshchyn in 2018. The production was awarded the highest Russian theater prize “Golden Mask”.

• After the start of Russia’s military invasion of Ukraine, new administrative and criminal articles on “fakes” and “discrediting” of the Russian army were adopted. According to them, anti-war statements and any statements about the war in Ukraine that do not coincide with the official position of the Ministry of Defense are considered an offense.
• In Russia, performances and concerts are regularly canceled with the participation of actors and performers who do not support the war in Ukraine or otherwise become inconvenient for the Kremlin’s official policy.