In Ulan-Ude, the actor of the Russian Drama Theater Artur Shuvalov opened his veins on stage after a performance. He stated that he did this because of pressure from management over the past year and the dismissal of his wife. Now the actor is in the hospital, the correspondent of Siberia.Realities reports . The audience filmed what was happening on video, one of the records of an eyewitness with the actor was published by the Baza Telegram channel.
Shuvalov and other actors of the theater were required to resign, they were also pressured due to calls to return the previous artistic director of the theater, Sergei Levitsky. A year ago, he was removed from his post for his anti-war stance. As a sign of disagreement with the management, the actors removed a poster with the letter Z from the theater building, and also wrote complaints about the new artistic director Vyacheslav Dyachenko. In an interview, artistic director Vyacheslav Dyachenko called the actors "representatives of the oldest profession" and said that he intended to stage performances "simpler and more understandable to ordinary people."
During his speech, Shuvalov expressed his position:
“Throughout the year they try to fire me from the theater, humiliate me, deprive me of work, money. Today they signed a statement, they fired my wife Svetlana Polyanskaya. I don't want to put up with it. But I have no more strength and no more choice. I don't want to hear that artists are "kind of an ancient profession". And I believe that our audience is worthy of smart direction, and not as our artistic director says.
Please forgive me again. I'm tired. I have no more choice. I want to say just one thing: Vyacheslav Mikhailovich Dyachenko, Natalya Nikolaevna Svetozarova (director of the theater) – these people are to blame for my death.
The audience told Sibir.Realii that at first they decided that this was part of the production. The actor was taken off the stage by his colleagues.
Russian theater workers opposed to the Russian-led war in Ukraine have faced layoffs. In January, Maria Revyakina, director of the State Theater of Nations, laureate of the State Prize of Russia, general director of the Golden Mask national theater award, left the post. She has directed the theater since 2012. Two days after the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Revyakina posted an anti-war appeal by theatrical figures on her Facebook page calling for the withdrawal of Russian troops. Some actors were fired for taking a public anti-war stance. So, the head of the Moscow Art Theater (MKhT) named after Chekhov, Konstantin Khabensky, fired actor Dmitry Nazarov and his wife, Honored Artist of Russia Olga Vasilyeva. The reason was "statements about the NWO and anti-Russian sentiments."