The play “Seryozha is very stupid” was canceled in Kachkanar because of the title: the namesake was offended

Why did the smart comedy about the eternal suffer?

The premiere of the play “Seryozha is very stupid” at the Center for Contemporary Drama took place three years ago, and since then it has been shown more than a hundred times on different stages. Now the play has gone on tour to the city of Kachkanar, Sverdlovsk region. On the eve of the show, it was canceled because of the word “dumb” in the title. This was announced by the head of the Yekaterinburg Center for Contemporary Drama, director of the production and leading actor Anton Butakov, who negotiated the tour.

“We were invited, and we agreed on all the conditions,” said Anton Butakov. – And yesterday they called and said that everything was canceled – because of the name. When I contacted the management of the theater in the city, I was told that the performance was canceled due to the fact that few tickets had allegedly been sold and that representatives of our center did not agree to such conditions. But the only one with whom it was possible to discuss the conditions was me. And, of course, I didn’t call. And we didn’t care how many tickets they sold.

– The play “Seryozha is very stupid” has been shown more than once. Were there any problems with the name before?

– The premiere took place in Yekaterinburg in 2020. We later showed it in Moscow, Omsk, and in different cities of the Sverdlovsk region. There are many fans of this performance in small towns. Once there was a problem, but it was resolved more easily. And then, as we were told, it turned out that the deputy director of the local theater had a name Sergei. He was offended. We even suggested changing the name and offered an alternative – “The Adventures of Programmer Seryozha.” But it did not help.

In a post about the cancellation of the play “Seryozha is very stupid,” Anton Butakov sarcastically added that at the same time, “they seem to have canceled all the mirrors in the house,” referring to the management of the theater in Kachkanar, which, it seems, found fault with the title of the production, without even knowing what it was about she.

Meanwhile, there is nothing stupid in the performance. Dmitry Danilov’s play was staged by many theaters. It is shown in different director’s versions throughout the country.

The irony inherent in the title reflects the situation in which the main character named Sergei finds himself. Three couriers in identical uniforms approach a 30-year-old programmer, but instead of handing over the parcel and leaving, they start asking him about this and that. They sing and ask strange questions. Sergei tries to call the police, but they refuse to come and threaten to issue a false call. Then the theater of the absurd unfolds…

The author of the play, Dmitry Danilov, describes the plot as follows: “I was interested in this situation from a psychological point of view, especially the reaction of the main character to unusual events and conversations. But if I need to answer the question “what is this play about?”, then I would say that it is about the fact that at any moment something irrational, inexplicable can invade the simple, measured life of the most ordinary person, and with this irrational you will have to deal with it and react to it somehow. And the whole future life (or its termination) may depend on this.”

And now a literary story about how an intelligent young man found himself in absurd circumstances happened in real life. Anton Butakov, who plays the main role in the production of the Yekaterinburg Center for Contemporary Drama, felt himself in the shoes of his hero, but not on stage, but in reality. “I want to yell at them with the words of the classic: “Wake up, you live in the 21st century!”, Anton concluded.