The director was called to the detention center for an encore – Picture of the Day – Kommersant
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More than 200 Russian artists have signed a petition in support of theater director Vsevolod Lisovsky. On Monday, the Troitsky District Court of Moscow arrested him for 15 days for disobeying the police (Article 19.3 of the Code of Administrative Offenses). For this, the director was detained at the exit from the special detention center, where he was serving 15 days of arrest under the same article. His colleagues demand to “consider” the actions of the police officers. The director’s lawyer told Kommersant that at the trial Vsevolod Lisovsky expressed his intention to leave Russia.
“Lisovsky’s life is a constant, uninterrupted service to the theater — not to a separate building or institution, but to the very essence of theatrical art — play, transformation, magic,” reads an open letter in support of theater director Vsevolod Lisovsky. It was signed by more than 200 artists. They ask to “consider the actions of the police”, to conduct an “investigation into wrongful detention” of the director and to release him.
Vsevolod Lisovsky – a program nonconformist who has no theater education and has never worked in state theaters. But at the same time, he is the winner of the Golden Mask: he received the main national theater award twice – in 2014 and in 2018. Both times he was nominated for an award in the “Experiment” category, dedicated to unusual and non-mainstream theatrical genres and forms. The theater for him was never connected with budgets, tickets, the concept of a “product”: once, not a single spectator came to his performance “Silence on a Given Topic”, staged in 2017 at Theater.doc, but the performance still took place. His works, whether stage or made in the genre of promenade performances, are always some kind of spontaneous, unpredictable activity. In fact, he is an actionist who has intersected with theatrical reality: in world practice this has been a common, natural and familiar phenomenon since at least the 1970s, but for the domestic theatrical landscape Vsevolod Lisovsky remains one of the few truly notable figures.
In the spring and autumn of 2022, the director was detained during street performances based on the play by the German playwright Bertolt Brecht Fear and Despair in the Third Empire. However, these detentions did not end with anything. Then, in November of the same year, the Ostankinsky District Court fined him 50,000 rubles. under the article on discrediting the Russian army (part 1 of article 20.3.3 of the Code of Administrative Offenses).
On February 10, Vsevolod Lisovsky and actor Ivan Anisimov, who played in his performances, were detained by police on the street. According to OVD-Info (recognized as a foreign agent), initially the police said that the director was using foul language. Then, a protocol of disobedience to the police was drawn up against him and he was arrested for 15 days (Article 19.3 of the Code of Administrative Offenses of the Russian Federation).
“Lisovsky was supposed to leave the Sakharovo detention center on February 25 at 13:05. Friends were waiting for him at the exit, but he never showed up,” the open letter says. “After searching, his relatives managed to find him at the police department for the provision of the State Budgetary Institution of Ukraine migration center in the TiNAO.” His lawyer from OVD-Info, Vladimir Zhilkin, told Kommersant that the director was detained under the same article on disobedience to the police. However, the defender says that the police officers who asked Vsevolod Lisovsky to show the documents did not introduce themselves to him in any way and did not give the reasons for their request, as required by the procedure. “They were wearing balaclavas, and Lisovsky had no reason to identify them as law enforcement officers,” the lawyer says. “He was ready to provide a passport and began to do so. But they forced him to put his hands on the car, searched him, and then took him away.”
On Monday, February 27, the director’s case was considered by the Troitsky District Court of Moscow. According to Mr. Zhilkin, the judge rejected all the motions filed by the defense. In particular, the lawyer asked to study the recordings from the surveillance cameras of the special detention center, as well as to interrogate witnesses: “We brought four witnesses to Troitsk so that they could testify in defense of Vsevolod. But the judge refused to interrogate them. It is a rare practice when a judge, in the presence of witnesses, deprives the defense of the opportunity to prove innocence.” As a result, the court arrested the director for 15 days on charges of disobeying the police (Article 19.3 of the Code of Administrative Offenses). The appeal hearing is due on Tuesday.
In an interview with Kommersant, Vladimir Zhilkin said: during the trial, Vsevolod Lisovsky said that the persecution by the authorities and the police was becoming too active and persistent. “He said that he did not rule out that it could continue indefinitely – he would be detained over and over again,” the lawyer says. “Therefore, Vsevolod made a proposal that the sooner he was free, the sooner he was ready to leave Russia.” His daughter Eva Lisovskaya told Kommersant that she was not aware of this statement because she could not attend this part of the meeting – she was called as a witness. She associates the persecution of her father exclusively with his performances. Ms. Lisovskaya suggests that many can see allusions to modernity in Brecht’s productions.
“Vsevolod and I did not find any other explanation for the pressure, except for his professional activities,” the lawyer says. “Apparently, they want to create an intimidating situation so that Vsevolod understands that there is no need to engage in Brecht, some kind of theatrical experiments.”
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