Her mother is self-censorship

Round table "Censorship in the theater: yesterday, today, tomorrow" was held at the Gogol Center

The participants of the discussion were Sergey Kapkov, head of the Moscow Department of Culture, famous Polish director Grzegorz Jazhina, theater expert Anatoly Smelyansky, editor-in-chief of the Theater magazine and curator of the Vienna Festival Marina Davydova, critics Alla Shenderova, Roman Pavlovsky (Poland), Pavel Rudnev. And, of course, Kirill Serebrennikov.

The prologue to the round table is the exhibition "Forbidden Theatre". Vera Martynova, chief artist of the Gogol Center, placed in a dreary Kafkaesque labyrinth, in a dusty plywood model of the Soviet “presence” or communal corridor (leading to the quote “corridors end with a wall”), scans of mournful sheets of Russian theater history, protocols and newspaper articles, expert opinions and denunciations: Meyerhold, Mikhoels, Tairov, the struggle of Lyubimov's "Taganka" for every breath, the maxims of the newspaper "Culture" of our days, the foam of a fresh scandal with Maxim Kurochkin's play "Herbivores" and a children's play about a pillow with buckwheat husks at the Open Book Festival …

Something thickens in the air. Something changes over time. The rules of the game have yet to be formulated. Actually, the main message of the round table at the Gogol Center is that the creative intelligentsia does not agree to silently play by any new rules.

The two-hour conversation sparkled with different plots - from the destruction of the Old Testament Book of the prophet Jeremiah in the 7th century. BC. to the memories of the good-natured censors of the 1970s, who told playwrights: “That phrase hurts me…” Here are the key fragments.

Kirill SEREBRNIKOV: We know that censorship is illegal in Russia. On this one could break up. But recently there are more and more cases of direct pressure on artists and institutions. And it seems that it happens spontaneously, it happens by chance ... And then - everyone gets used to it. And this is becoming the new norm.

But what is censorship today? Perhaps the problem is sucked from the finger?

Part of the whole conversation was started by me to answer the question: “What are we going to do next?” What should we do when we read articles in a quite modern press that are close in intensity and argumentation to the articles of the 1930s? And I feel like I don't have the adaptability to it. I don't know how to behave. But to put up and accept - not ready. The only thing I clearly understand is that censorship is needed to scare people. To turn on the most terrible mechanism - self-censorship.

Sergey KAPKOV: It seems to me that censorship is a form of envy. And not even envy of talent, but of a different way of life.

There are over 300 theaters in Moscow. Of these, 16 federal and 88 city. All theaters are very different - but no attempts to divide them into "categories" are even observed. And this universality makes the law ridiculous: the parliament, the ministry are concerned that they do not swear from the stage, and that they do not smoke on the summer verandas. Important problems are facing the society! No others!

It is much more important that the society itself does not swear. But this problem is not even mentioned.

Anatoly SMELYANSKY: We are not the first, and we are not the only ones. In the Art Theater this spring, work was underway on the play "A Streetcar Named Desire" - and we studied the entire history of the play. On Broadway, at the first production, in 1947, the text was not touched. But when the shooting of the film began, there was a special censorship committee in Hollywood in the late 1940s. And from there came the instructions: remove the homosexual theme, remove the Blanche rape scene. At the theater, please. But cinema creates the image of America and educates the masses.

In response to this stupidity, Tennessee Williams wrote one of his most poignant and brilliant letters to the censors. He explained that the scene of rape cannot be removed: it contains the quintessence of the idea. It's not Blanche that's being raped here, it's the tenderness, the defenselessness, the trust poured out in the world that's being raped. About their collapse, their death - both a play and a film.

And Williams convinced his censors: this episode in Elia Kazan's film survived.

But our "foul law" is extremely naive. Behind him shines an amazing understanding of the issue: the theater is a place where everyone goes on stage and barks terribly, dirty ...

Well, just like we have on Patriarch's Ponds on Fridays!

Pavel RUDNEV: One must be aware that any law issued in Moscow is “strengthened” tenfold in the provinces. Fear turns on, no matter how something happens, personal zeal, arbitrariness. And the fact that the Ministry of Culture proposes as a recommendatory measure comes to delirium. In the absence of a theater law, the official becomes the city's censor. Like Nicholas I for Pushkin.

In December 2013, Roskomnadzor considered a case at the Krasnodar Drama Theater regarding the interpretation of Gogol's The Inspector General. For example, in the scene where Khlestakov comes to the Gorodnichy family, the mother calls her daughter a fool. So it is with Gogol.

Krasnodar authorities note: "This statement destroys the cult of the family."

Officials talking about bribes (corresponds exactly to the play!): "This is an excuse for illegal behavior." And Roskomnadzor is forced to deal with an absolutely legitimate, textbook text, post an official conclusion on the website, where a certified expert of the department explains to the public the role of the grotesque in works of art.

Roman PAVLOVSKY (Poland): As for Poland… Of course, there has been no official censorship for 25 years. But we also had an episode in Krakow, in the Ancient Theater, when a group of Catholic activists came on the stage during the performance “The Way to Damascus” based on the play by Strindberg and stopped the action for several minutes. There was no outright scandal, there was a discussion, but the performance was stopped. Then the hall began to clap - and the activists left the stage.

But I think Poland's main problem is economic censorship. The pressure of the free market: the theater of farce, comedy, shows is crowding out the "theater of meaning". This is dangerous for us. Not mat.

But still, you and we live in happy countries, where the theater still means a lot. And if Bogomolov can stage such a performance as "An Ideal Husband" at the National Theater, at the Moscow Art Theater, the space of freedom still exists.

Kirill SEREBRNIKOV: We must prepare ourselves for the fact that the rules of the game change as the game progresses. That any of our gestures, any statement may suddenly be outside the legal field. And, by the way, that they can start cracking down on artists with the hands of other artists.

View the documents at the Forbidden Theater exhibition. With what pleasure colleagues in 1949 talk about Tairov: yes, he is outdated! And the Chamber Theater is outdated...

This is the most terrible thing - when artists begin to eat each other, themselves, in abnormal, absurd conditions of being.

Anatoly SMELYANSKY: The new season will be very important. And the specific reaction of specific Moscow theaters, specific artistic directors - to each new challenge.