People’s Artist of Russia Liya Akhedzhakova, whose performances were removed from the repertoire in Sovremennik, wrote a letter to Novaya Gazeta, in which she said goodbye to the theater stage and thanked the publication for collecting letters of readers with words of support. Message published on the newspaper’s website.
On February 8, the actress told Novaya Gazeta Europe that Sovremennik had canceled her latest play, The Gin Game, with her participation. According to her, the director of the theater, Yuri Kravets, explained this with a flood of angry letters from the public. As Akhedzhakova said, Kravets also said that the recommendation to remove The Game of Gin from the repertoire was given to him by the Moscow Department of Culture, to which the theater is subordinate.
After that, director Kirill Serebrennikov and Novaya Gazeta announcement about collecting fan letters for Akhedzhakova, more than 15,000 of them were received. Messages were collected in books and given to the artist. Launching the project, Serebrennikov noted that letters would also be sent to Sovremennik.
In her response letter, the actress says that in her life there has never been “such a flow of love, sympathy, respect.” “People all over the world are writing, my viewers are writing ‘our’ people who inhabit the globe. <...> Thank you, my loved ones, thank you Kirill (Serebrennikov), thank you Novaya Gazeta! How dear to me is your support, your love, your memory of films, performances, actors, directors,” she wrote. Akhedzhakova noted that the scene gave her "an opportunity to confess, to declare her love for people", but she did not have time to say goodbye to him. “I didn't have time to say goodbye to my scene. My dearly beloved scene - you gave me the opportunity to confess, to declare my love to people I love, appreciate, respect, what playwrights! What directors! What partners! When Bogdan Stupka and I performed in Frank Gogol's “Old World Landlords” theater in Kiev, Bogdan said to me, “Say hello to the stage, it will help you. And every time I walked on stage in Kiev, I said, “Hello, Stage! I will try not to let you down. Farewell, my dear. Wait. We artists love you and remember you. Long life to you! Akhedzhakova wrote. After the letter was published in Sovremennik reported that Akhedzhakova was not fired from the theater, she did not quit and is still an actress in the troupe. In addition, the press service of the theater noted that the performance “The Gin Game” with the participation of the artist was not removed from the repertoire.
The Gin Game was the last production in which Liya Akhedzhakova took part. Another – “Le premier pain” by Benjamin Kots from the play by Rinat Tashimov – was finally removed from the repertoire in the fall of 2022.
A year earlier, the performance had been criticized by the Russian Officers’ Organization, which in July 2021 filed complaints with Moscow City Hall and the Prosecutor General’s Office. The SERB movement also issued criticisms and threats. The order to check the performance to insult the feelings of the veterans gave Head of the Investigative Committee of Russia Alexander Bastrykin. “The investigator called me for a conversation. I was accused of swearing on stage, ”said the actress herself.
Despite this, in the fall of 2022 the show returned to the theater repertoire (in any case, it was announced), but on October 17, 2022 its screening canceled supposedly for technical reasons, and since then “First Bread” has not been put on the bill.
