The Moscow Department of Culture has appointed new management of the Gogol Center. Kirill Serebrennikov announced the closure of the theater

The Moscow Department of Culture announced the severance of labor relations with the former management of the Gogol Center. This is reported by TASS with reference to the department.

The position of artistic director of the theater will be replaced by director Anton Yakovlev instead of Alexei Agranovich. Director instead of Alexei Kabeshev will be the ex-head of the Novosibirsk State Philharmonic Alexander Bocharnikov.

The department added that at the Sovremennik Theater, the artistic council will now be responsible for the creative part, and the Moscow ballet team will become part of the Moscow Novaya Opera Theater. E. V. Kolobova.

“The appointments of new artistic directors and directors in Moscow theaters are connected with the termination of labor relations with the previous management,” the TASS report says.

Immediately after that, director Kirill Serebrennikov announced the closure of the Gogol Center.

“Now they have decided to close the theatre. For position. For honesty. For an attempt at freedom. For the fact that all the months that the war has been going on, in the theater, the actors, protesting against the war, do not bow, ending each performance with the image of a dove of peace. For not removing my performances from the repertoire. For being decent people. The titles of the performances - I DO NOT PARTICIPATE IN THE WAR and PROTECT YOUR FACES - are messages to you, the audience, this is a request from all of us, the Gogol Center team, to remain human.

Yes. They are closing the live theater. With constant crowds. With a wonderful audience. With a unique repertoire. Theater of world renown. Theater for the people. They can do it by the right of the founder. But from the point of view of art, this is not just sabotage - it is murder. Another common kill. So please remember. DEUS CONSERVAT OMNIA,” he wrote.

The department emphasized that "the Gogol Theater in Moscow, which worked under the creative pseudonym "Gogol Center", is not closed, but will only change its management."

Serebrennikov said that the last performance of the theater will be the production of "I do not participate in the war" based on the poetry of Yuri Levitansky. The last premiere of the Gogol Center was the play "Take Care of Your Faces" based on the poetry of Andrei Voznesensky.

“Back then, the performance was staged three times at the Taganka Theater and was immediately closed by the authorities,” the director noted.