One of the most prestigious theatre festivals in Russia,“The Golden Mask”, has opened recently. The first performance presented to the Russian public was the production of the famous “Berliner Ensemble”, a theatre company from Germ

“The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui” is one of the performances presented on the first day of the festival. It was written by German dramatist Bertolt Brecht in 1941.

It chronicles the career of a criminal who is trying to control the racket by cruelly destroying all his rivals. The play is consciously highly satirical of Adolf Hitler in Nazi Germany, whose rise Brecht considered parallel to that of Ui. Through satire the dramatist could depict the real ugly face of fascism. “The theatre should always be somehow entertaining and thoughtful and I think it can be both at the same time, and it should be”, German actor Martin Wuttke, performing the role of Arturo Ui, said.

The play was not staged until as late as 1951 in Germany due to political reasons. The Russian public has already seen it in 1996 when the Berliner Ensemble toured in Moscow for the first time. Now it opens the Golden Mask theatre festival as part of the special programme “The Legendary Performances of the 20th Century”.

As for the first nominees of this year's “Golden Mask” theatre award, there were five performances presented at different theatres of the city on the first day of the festival.

First comes a musical called “Maugli”. This story has always been beloved by Russian children. They as well as their parents could meet in the play one of the nominees for “best actor” Aleksandr Babenko. Another “best actor” nominee is Vasily Bochkaryov. He plays the main character in Maly Theatre's performance “The Imaginary Invalid”. “When I start performing a new role I always do that through my own feelings, my own impressions”, he confessed.

Russian actor Aleksandr Abdulov also has an opportunity to win “The Golden Mask” for best actor for his acting at Lenkom Theatre's “Eclipse”, though he does not sound very optimistic about his chances for victory: “I'm not lucky when it comes for winning a prize, that's why I don't even care if I win it this time”.

As for the Innovation nomination there are two productions for it: a performance called “A Stone Guest or Don Juan is Dead” of Moscow's School of Dramatic Art and “Faust Cubed. 2360 Words” by the “AKHE” Theatre from St. Petersburg.

The winners’ names will be announced at the closing ceremony on April 14.