After a dozen homophobes disrupt a documentary stage production in Moscow, the director is brought in for questioning by police

On August 28, roughly a dozen men disrupted a performance of “Coming Out of the Closet,” a documentary stage production about Russia’s LGBTQ community. The theater’s website says the show is “about life, love, and the search for truth among modern-day Russian gay people.”

Anastasia Paltai, the play’s director, told the website Mediazona that the intruders shouted and interfered with the actors. Outside the theater, a small group of people assembled carrying various homophobic signs. Paltai was later taken to a police station, journalist Zoya Svetova reported on Facebook, saying that the people who disrupted the performance accused the “Theater.doc” playhouse of illegal “gay propaganda.”

According to the Telegram channel Baza, police also brought in one of the theater’s employees and two of the men who disrupted the performance. Paltai reportedly plans to file her own charges against the intruders.

Assistant art director Zarema Zaudinova wrote on Facebook that the play resumed after the police arrived, but the activists continued to shout threats at the actors and audience.