The Russian theater critic Marina Dawydowa travels a lot in the world, but nowhere else does she experience a boom in new stage productions and audiences like in Moscow, she says when we meet her in a café.

It seems almost pathological to her how the residents of the capital crowd into the theaters in the evening, the number of which has not decreased since the end of the Soviet Union, but where the cheap tickets now cost 75 euros.

In the situation of political repression and the powerlessness of civil society, culture for Muscovites, who never voted for President Putin with a majority, is becoming more and more obvious as a place of escape, believes Davydova.

If she were a state functionary, according to the opposition intellectual, she would subsidize the stages even more.

Kerstin Holm

Editor in the features section.

  • Follow I follow

Since socio-political issues have to be negotiated again in the alternative public sphere of culture, as in Soviet times, productions cause a sensation, entertainingly satirized the cynicism of the better society sitting in the auditorium, who are connected to each other in a class-solidarity through their advancement orientation, preferably in the guise of updated classics. Especially since Konstantin Bogomolow has brought the reflection of the party community of the "Tussowka" to perfection in his Dostoevsky productions (FAZ of November 11th). With his radical modernization of Alexander Ostrowski's comedy “A stupidity makes the cleverest” at the Moscow Theater of Nations, Bogomolov now goes one step further. Ostrowski's moral image of the talentless but calculating young man,who succeeds in a vertical career through flattery, he transforms into a fun Satan's ball, at which the director also acts as the host and master of the ceremony.

Ostrowski's well-connected personalities in Bogomolov become members of the Kremlin-affiliated elite who do the opposite of what they preach. The state-protected entrepreneur Mamayev (with a decadent flair: Alexander Semchev) keeps young playmates, his wife who works for the government (with sultry glow: Natalja Schtschukina) searches for fresh lovers with the help of her foundation, which is supposed to help orphans, organizes transvestite shows and lets herself off Willingly ensnare her ambitious young relative Glumow (merges with every wallpaper: Alexander Nowin), who has so far tried his pointy pen on the Telegram channel “Fließe, Dreck!” (Lejsja, gowno). A narrow-lipped secret service general watches over everyone - as Ostrowski's high political functionary.which his knowledge of human nature makes philosophical and who humbly invite star artists such as cult conductor Teodor Currentzis and Bogomolow to their premieres.

As the singer-actor Grigori Wernik, imitating Currentzis' accent, whose erotomaniac credo of music, which is equal to love and thus to God, pretends to the audience in the front row, who each paid 190 euros for a ticket, the visit alone is worthwhile In the evening, who of course pours his ridicule on the figures according to the watering can principle. The Russian protest movement, with which Bogomolov was still sympathetic, is now mocked by the figure of the secret agent's daughter, who is a lesbian for him, who - like many strong women in Bogomolov - is embodied by a man as a combative ecofeminist, while the slick Glumov with a couple Judo holds tames. The epilogue takes you to a penal colony in 2025, where Glumow's colleague from "Fließe, Dreck!" Who was convicted in the play is still languishing and learnsthat Russia has long since annexed Ukraine. When there is applause, the ensemble goes to the prison roll call.