The Bratsk theater canceled a performance based on Vyrypaev’s play after a denunciation

The Bratsk Drama Theater in the Irkutsk region has canceled the performance of the play “Illusions” based on the play by playwright Ivan Vyrypaev. As Elena Tchaikovskaya, the head of the theater, reported, the reason was a denunciation of a woman who was indignant because of the staging of a play by a playwright who was absentee appointed eight years in prison.

“We are withdrawing the performance from the show. The playwright talked himself into the article. Convicted and put on the wanted list. But we didn’t even know,” wrote Elena Chaikovskaya on the page in “In contact with”. According to her, the management of the theater does not monitor the decisions of the courts, and “there was no information from the competent authorities.”

The performance of the play “Illusions” was supposed to take place on January 25, February 15 and March 17. The production premiered in February 2022. Ivan Vyrypaev comes from Irkutsk, where in 1998 he founded the Theater Studio “Space of Game”. In 2014, he left Russia for Poland, and in May 2022 he received Polish citizenship. Performances based on his plays are staged in Poland, Germany, the Czech Republic, Bulgaria, France, and Canada.

On December 15, the Basmanny District Court of Moscow sentenced Ivan Vyrypaev in absentia to eight years in prison on charges of disseminating false information about the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation (clause “e”, part 2 of Article 207.3 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation). The case is related to the director’s statements, including plans to donate funds from productions of his plays to help Ukrainian refugees. He has been wanted since the spring of 2023. Russia demanded his extradition from Poland, but was refused.

Lusine Balasyan