Theater “Sovremennyk” canceled the performance of the play by Ulitskaya

The Moscow Theater “Sovremennyk” canceled the February and March showings of the play “Let’s Dance…” based on Lyudmila Ulitskaya’s play. This is reported by TASS with reference to the press service of the theater.

The theater’s website does not say anything about the cancellation of the performance or the reasons for it. There are no longer any previously planned shows on the poster. The play has been running in “Sovremennik” since 2015.

On February 5, as “Meduza” writes, it became known that the performance of the play “Jewish Happiness” based on Ulitskaya’s play “My Grandson Venyamin” was canceled by the Perm Theater of the Young Spectator (TYUZ). The reasons were also not explained.

In recent days, it has been reported that Ulitskaya’s books have stopped being published in Moscow libraries, they have disappeared from a number of online sites where they could be purchased, and the AST publishing house has announced that it is suspending payments under all contracts with the writer. Ulitskaya is also subjected to sharp criticism in pro-war publications and mass media. The reason for this was the recording of a conversation with Ulytskaya, published at the end of January by the so-called pranksters Vovan and Lexus, during which the writer said that she was sending royalties to Ukraine from the sale of her books. The pranksters talked to her, introducing themselves as the head of the office of the President of Ukraine, Andrey Yermak.

This is not the first such case – earlier, after the conversations of anti-war writers with Vovan and Lexus, the Russian authorities intensified repression against writers. A criminal case was opened against Boris Akunin and he was included in the list of so-called foreign agents, Dmytro Bykov was fined under an administrative article, the AST publishing house stopped selling books by both writers. Ulytskaya, Akunin and Bykov live abroad.