Theater director Rimas Tuminas died

Famous theater director Rimas Tuminas died in Italy at the age of 73. This was reported by the press service of the Evgeny Vakhtangov Moscow Theater, whose artistic director Tuminas spent 15 years. He left his post in May 2022 after condemning Russia’s military invasion of Ukraine.

Tuminas was born in 1952 in Vilnius, studied at the Lithuanian Conservatory, and then at GITIS. In the Soviet era, he worked simultaneously in the theaters of the Lithuanian SSR and the RSFSR. In 1990, he founded and headed the Small Drama Theater of Vilnius. From 1994 to 1999, he was the chief director of the National Drama Theater of Lithuania.

In 2007, Tuminas accepted the offer of the then Minister of Culture of Russia to head the Vakhtangov Theater in Moscow.

The director was known for his productions of Russian and European theater classics. His performances have been awarded numerous awards, including the Russian “Golden Mask” (four times), “Crystal Turandot” (three times), the State Prize of the Russian Federation. Tuminas is a laureate of the Lithuanian National Prize for Culture and Art, a Knight of the Commander’s Cross of the Order of Grand Duke Hyadiminas of Lithuania, the Order of Merit to the Republic of Poland, and others.

In 2022, after the start of the war in Ukraine, Tuminas left the post of artist of both the Vakhtangov Theater and the Vilnius Maly Theater. He referred to the state of health. A number of Russian mass media reported that the real reason was Tuminas’ telephone conversation with the pranksters Vovan and Lexus, which got into the Internet. The pranksters called Tuminas on behalf of the Ukrainian Minister of Culture, and the director condemned Russian aggression in a conversation with them.

Soon after the dismissal of Tuminas, the head of the Russian government, Mikhail Myshustin, by his order, released the director of the 2021 Russian government award in the field of culture awarded to him for the play “Oedipus the King”. The reasons for this decision were not reported. Later in 2022, the Vakhtangov Theater canceled a number of performances staged by Tuminas, both on its stage and on tour. At the same time, the Minister of Culture of Lithuania Simonas Kairis demanded the dismissal of the director from the Vilnius Maly Theater due to the fact that Tuminas also worked in Russia.

In the last 10 years of his life, Tuminas fought with lung cancer.