Satirical play on Putin admitted in Rostov-on-Don

The bosses of the Rostov Youth Theatre have apologized for the situation around cancellation of several plays of the festival "Rostov Readings" and cancelled their earlier decision not to admit them to performance.

The "Caucasian Knot" correspondent was informed earlier by Olga Kalashnikova, one of the organizers of the festival, the Theatre had excluded the play by Vladimir Golyshev about Putin entitled "Prebiotics" from the repertoire of the festival, and questioned the performance of two works by playwright Anna Donatova: "Tudam-Syudam" and "Cat is to Blame for My Sexuality".

The organizers of the festival of modern play "Rostov Readings" have already informed the audience that the earlier cancelled plays will still be read out from the stage of the theatre.

The attempt of censorship has received a broad public resonance; and the administration of the theatre, headed by Acting Director Alexander Bliznyuk was forced to explain their behaviour to the numerous media people who cover the pre-festival events.

After that, as reported by the Ministry of Culture of the Region, the Ministry held a meeting with participation of Mr Bliznyuk. The officials reviewed the texts of all the plays, presented for the "Rostov Readings".

According to the organizers, they had meanwhile studied a possibility of holding the festival at other concert venues in the city, and almost succeeded in it.

However, on Friday, May 19, Bliznyuk called the committee of the "Rostov Readings" and apologized for what had happened. He also said that there would be no bans of the plays and asked the festival to return.

The playwright Anna Donatova wrote in her blog in LiveJournal: "We understand the importance of holding the festival of modern drama in the territory of the theatre; moreover, of the theatre that we all love and where we have a lot of friends among actors and producers. We appreciate the courage of theatre bosses who admitted their mistake." She also thanked her colleagues and journalists for informational support.

The entrance to the festival "Rostov Readings" is free. It will be held on May 25-27.

As for Golyshev's play "Prebiotics", the author will not be present in Rostov-on-Don during the event, while his resonant work has already been read out in the conference hall of the Rostov Building Institute.