Latvia’s national theater bans Russian language

The Latvian National Theater has canceled a scheduled Russian-language play called ‘Diary of Madmen’ and instituted a blanket “moratorium” on any performances in Russian at the venue.

The move was announced on Monday by director Maris Vitols, who said the theater had scrapped a contract with Entracte International to host the play, which was scheduled for September. 

“The stage of the National Theater is not a suitable place for Russian-language touring performances at a time when Russia continues the war in Ukraine,” Vitols stated, adding that a moratorium on staging plays in Russian would be in place until the conflict ends.

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Vitols insisted the move was not actually aimed at artists who had left Russia over the hostilities. The theater “respects” their decision to leave the country and “condemns” the Russian leadership over the military operation in Ukraine, he added.

However, the decision to cancel ‘Diary of Madmen’ is inevitably bound to affect artists who left Russia over the Ukraine conflict. The play was directed by Dmitry Krymov, who openly condemned the military operation and refused to return to Russia over it. Another play directed by Krymov and staged at the National Theater, ‘Peter Pan. Syndrome’, is running in Latvian and was apparently left unaffected by the move. 

The now-canceled play featured Chulpan Khamatova and Maksim Sukhanov. Khamatova left Russia shortly after the conflict broke out in February 2022, condemning the campaign and remaining abroad ever since. Sukhanov, who has long been critical of the Russian authorities, has provided no opinion on the conflict publicly. The actor, however, has largely vanished from the country’s mediascape amid the hostilities and apparently resides abroad as well.