The Franco Theater refused to participate in the Theater Olympics because of the Russians

The Ivan Franko National Academic Drama Theater refused to participate in the 10th Theater Olympiad in the Hungarian capital Budapest. The reason is the inclusion of the Russians in the program. The theater announced this on Facebook.

“More than four months ago, we agreed to participate in the Theater Olympics for the performances Car’era Arturo Uji and Caligula only after we received assurances from the organizers that the representatives of the aggressor country Russia is not in the program,” the statement said. .

In a letter to the organizers dated January 19, 2023, theatergoers emphasized that “the calls to find a ‘dialogue without politics’ and rebuild the ‘broken bridge’ with Russian artists are completely not acceptable.”

However, despite this, recently the program of the Olympics was supplemented by the performance of REX staged by the artistic director of the Alexandrinsky Theater Valery Fokin.

“Also, within the framework of the Olympics, his film Petropolis was shown with Anton Shagin in the title role – a Russian actor who actively supports the war against Ukraine,” the theater added.

In this regard, the theater will conduct preparations for participation in several other international festivals in Europe.

“Our theater sincerely wanted to join the great world theatrical event and did a great job in preparing the presentation of Ukrainian performances in Budapest, but we cannot agree with the dubious “neighborhood” in the program of the Theater Olympics. Franko Theater understands the importance of presenting Ukrainian culture abroad and constantly strives to develop international cooperation with colleagues from around the world. At the same time, we adhere to a firm position regarding the impossibility of participation in international events where representatives of a terrorist country and people who justify the aggression of Russia are invited,” said the actors.

As you know, the X Theater Olympiad is an international forum that presents the work of leading theater artists from around the world. In 2023, it will run from April 1 to July 1. The public will be able to see the performances of about 200 teams from more than 30 countries, namely 550 performances in 70 locations.

Recall that the French director, screenwriter and actor Michel Hazanavicius became the ambassador of the fundraising platform United24 and visited the Bucha and Irpin destroyed by the Russian invaders in the Kyiv region.