Chulpan Khamatova
Photo: Anastasia PLESHAKOVA
The news about the closure of the performance with the participation of Chulpan Khamatova at the New Riga Theater was not discussed only by the lazy. The staging of Gogol’s play “Landowners of the Old World” was to be staged in three languages: Russian, Ukrainian and Latvian. The director of the New Riga Theater, Alvis Hermanis, commenting on the sad news, admitted that the production in the form in which it is now cannot be shown to the audience. Meanwhile, the other day it became known about the true reasons for the interruption of the performance.
Chulpan Khamatova personally does not comment on the interruption of the performance. But cunning reporters managed to figure out the ins and outs of the scandal.
Chulpan taught the role in Russian, Latvian and Ukrainian. This became the main problem. Of the three languages, the leading role was assigned not to Latvian or Russian, but to Ukrainian. The production was planned to be shown at European festivals.
But suddenly the Ukrainian side intervened in the theatrical production. They were outraged. Like, the move with the Ukrainian language is not justified. According to the mk.ru site, it got to the point that almost the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry intervened in the theatrical work.
“Alvis Hermanis came to the rehearsal three days before the premiere. At first he wanted to save the situation, remove the Ukrainian language. But it became clear that Chulpan could not have learned so many Latvian texts in three days. Initially, she learned the role that was supposed to what I was supposed to do at the performance. And then they decided to shut down the performance,” an informed source said.
For the New Riga Theater, the situation with the cancellation of the performance is unprecedented. The history of a cultural institution knows many problematic performances. But the premieres have not been canceled before.
