The Gogol Center theater, one of the last bastions of artistic freedom in Russia, closed its doors with a provocative final performance called “I take no part in the war.” Thursday night’s emotional game, protesting the Kremlin’s invasion of Ukraine, marked the dramatic end of an era for the Russian capital’s ever-shrinking opposition and intellectual circles. Previously run by rebel filmmaker Kirill Serebrennikov, who fled Russia after criticizing Moscow’s aggression in Ukraine, the Gogol Center has staged daring works for a decade, often testing increasingly strict laws and Moscow’s sharp conservative turn under President Vladimir Putin. The final performance on Thursday night had some in the audience in tears when the actors recited poems by Soviet poet and soldier Yuri Levitansky, who was born in what is now Ukraine. The name of the last work was taken from one of Levitansky’s iconic lines: “I don’t take part in the war, it takes part in me.” As the performance ended, the theater’s outgoing artistic director, Alexei Agranovich, announced: “The Gogol Center is closed. Forever.” On Wednesday night, Moscow authorities announced a change of management at several top Moscow theaters, including the Sovremennik and Gogol Centre. The Gogol Center will get back its old name – The Nikolai Gogol Drama Theatre, authorities said. Serebrennikov, who was artistic director of the Gogol Center between 2012 and 2021, accused the authorities of “murdering” his former theater that he had built into a national cultural beacon. “Yes. Gogol Center is closed. That’s it,” Serebrennikov wrote on the Telegram messaging app. “From the point of view of art, this is not just sabotage – this is murder.” He said the leadership change was punishment for the site’s “honesty” and an “attempt at freedom,” including efforts to protest Moscow’s war in Ukraine. The 52-year-old director has been embroiled in a high-profile fraud case that his supporters say was punishment from the Kremlin for challenging Russian authorities. Another prominent Moscow theater, the Sovremennik, will also have a change of management, authorities said. The changes are seen as part of a growing crackdown on dissent since President Putin sent troops into Ukraine. On Thursday, Serebrennikov addressed the audience via video link from Avignon in southeastern France. “The Gogol Center is an idea, the idea of freedom. Freedom is not dead. Freedom lives as long as we live,” he said. In his speech, Serebrennikov pledged that, despite the closure in Moscow, the theater’s mission will continue. “There was this building. There will be another,” he said. “I hope, someday, the war will end and the beautiful Russia of the future will emerge.”
