The Russian theater rewrote the play based on the play by foreign agent Akunin in its own way

A theater in St. Petersburg brought a musical based on the book by foreign agent Boris Akunin to friendly China.

The St. Petersburg “LDM Theater” announced significant changes to its repertoire against the backdrop of the recognition of writer Boris Akunin as a foreign agent. The venue did not remove the musical based on the writer’s book “The Diamond Chariot” from its repertoire, but seriously rewrote the libretto.

A statement from the theater’s press service mentions that “the play was born from the musical ‘The Diamond Chariot,'” but the producers decided to “move the scene to friendly China” and make the main character a descendant of the traveler Marco Polo, who “discovered the Celestial Empire for Europe.” The theater noted that this was a “reinvention premiere.”

Akunin himself, commenting on the news from St. Petersburg, noted that the play had been running in the theater in its original form for several years, and the current decision of the venue surprised the author with the novelty of the approach. The writer suggested that this could become a precedent, followed by similar events: “All Pugacheva’s songs will be re-invented by the Shaman…”

At the end of December 2023, it became known that the Russian publishing house stops publishing books Akunin, as well as writer Dmitry Bykov, also included in the register of foreign agents of the Ministry of Justice. On Friday, January 26, it became known that Akunin (Grigory Chkhartishvili) was put on the wanted list by the Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs.