Politics and Putinism: A Critical Examination of New Russian Drama James Rowson A thesis submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Royal Holloway, University of London Department of Drama, Theatre & Dance September 2017 1 Declaration of Authorship I James Rowson hereby declare that this thesis and the work presented in it is entirely my own. Where I have consulted the work of others, this is always clearly stated. Signed: ______________________ Date: ________________________ 2 Abstract This thesis will contextualise and critically explore how New Drama (Novaya Drama) has been shaped by and adapted to the political, social, and cultural landscape under Putinism (from 2000). It draws on close analysis of a variety of plays written by a burgeoning collection of playwrights from across Russia, examining how this provocative and political artistic movement has emerged as one of the most vehement critics of the Putin regime. This study argues that the manifold New Drama repertoire addresses key facets of Putinism by performing suppressed and marginalised voices in public arenas. It contends that New Drama has challenged the established, normative discourses of Putinism presented in the Russian media and by Putin himself, and demonstrates how these productions have situated themselves in the context of the nascent opposition movement in Russia. By doing so, this thesis will offer a fresh perspective on how New Drama’s precarious engagement with Putinism provokes political debate in contemporary Russia, and challenges audience members to consider their own role in Putin’s autocracy. The first chapter surveys the theatrical and political landscape in Russia at the turn of the millennium, focusing on the political and historical contexts of New Drama in Russian theatre and culture. The final four chapters focus on specific case studies. Chapter Two explores the development of political satire by contrasting Varvara Faer’s BerlusPutin (2012) and Viktor Teterin’s Putin.doc (2005). Chapter Three looks at Mikhail and Vyacheslav Durnenkov’s The Drunks (Pianii, 2009) and Pavel Pryzhko’s The Soldier (Soldat, 2011). Chapter Four discusses two plays by Vasilly Sigarev: Plasticine (Plastilin, 2000) and Black Milk (Chernoe Moloko, 2001). Chapter Five explores the documentary plays The Bolotnaya Square Case (Bolotnoe Delo, 2015) by Polina Borodina and Elena Gremina’s One Hour Eighteen Minutes (Chas Vosemnadtsat’, 2010, expanded in 2012). 3 Table of Contents Introduction 6 Chapter One: New Drama and Theatre Contexts 33 Chapter Two: Putin on Stage: Varvara Faer’s BerlusPutin and 50 Viktor Teterin’s Putin.doc Chapter Three: Chechnya and Beyond: Staging 82 the Soldier in New Drama Chapter Four: Social Divide and the Provinces 123 in the Theatre of Vassily Sigarev Chapter Five: Dissent and Documentary: 160 Performing Justice in Teatr.doc’s The Bolotnaya Square Case and One Hour Eighteen Minutes Conclusion 200 Bibliography 208 4 Acknowledgments I would firstly like to thank Royal Holloway, University of London with providing me with the funding that allowed me to undertake this thesis. It gives me a lot of pleasure to thank a number of people for their help and support during the research of my thesis. I am grateful to the staff at Teatr.doc for providing me with unpublished scripts, allowing me access to their archives, and for generally making me feel welcome whenever I visited their theatre in Moscow. I must also acknowledge the help of scholars from outside of my department, who have provided me with feedback on my writing and research: Oliver Double, Maria Kroupnik, Molly Flynn, and Alexandra Smith. My parents deserve special thanks for their constant support and encouragement during this project. I also want to express my love to Nadia, for keeping me sane throughout the writing on this thesis. Particular thanks goes to my advisor Bryce Lease, for his insightful feedback and encouragement through the writing of my thesis. Finally, I am indebted to my supervisor Chris Megson who went above and beyond in his supervision of my thesis. This project would not have reached fruition without his intelligent, patient, and enthusiastic engagement with my work. I am sincerely grateful to have had him as my supervisor. 5 Introduction This thesis critically explores how New Drama (Novaya Drama) has been shaped by and adapted to the political, social, and cultural landscape under Putinism (from 2000). Since the turn of the millennium, young playwrights have engaged with the political and social realities of contemporary Russia, playing a key role in articulating an oppositional discourse to the Putin regime. The work of these provocative theatre makers has been collated under the idiom of New Drama, a broad term that includes plays written and performed throughout the twenty-first century that interrogate contemporary cultural identities and articulate important political anxieties that have emerged in Russian society under the Putin regime. The emergence of New Drama at the start of the twenty-first century was the result of a variety of disparate factors and circumstances. These included, but were not limited to, the auspices of the Royal Court Theatre’s international programme for young playwrights in Russia, the foundation of theatre spaces dedicated to new theatre writing in both Moscow and the provinces, and the creation of a number of dedicated playwriting courses in universities across the country. The focal point of New Drama is a cluster of small theatres located in central Moscow, which are dedicated to producing new writing. The limited performance spaces and capacities of these theatres has become a signature of New Drama productions. As Marina Davydova, editor of leading Russian-language theatre journal Teatr, asserts: ‘we can imagine the plays of these young authors only in the cellar of "Teatr.doc" or another small and underground room.’1 Teatr.doc, founded in February 2002 by Mikhail Ugarov and Elena Gremina, has emerged as an important locus of politically and socially engaged theatre in contemporary Russia. Significantly, the company is run independently of the state and without government funding – a rarity in Russia, where historically most theatres are publically funded intuitions. Instead, Teatr.doc rely on private donations, online crowdfunding campaigns, the help of volunteers, and often the financial support of the artists themselves, who use their own money to keep the theatre afloat. In recent years, Teatr.doc has made headlines across the globe following the company’s forced eviction from its original space on Trekhprudnyi Pereulok in the Tverskoy district of central Moscow in December 2014, and again 1 Davydova (2009) 6 from their new premises on Spartakovskaia Ulitsa in June 2015.2 Despite the significant setbacks faced by the company, Teatr.doc has continued to stage its diverse repertoire in Moscow and remains one of the focal points of New Drama. This thesis argues that New Drama has emerged as one of the most exciting opposition movements against the increasing authoritarianism of the Kremlin. It demonstrates that contemporary playwriting has engaged with suppressed and marginalised discourses in public arenas. It focuses on four crucial facets of Putinism, which I identify as key political anxieties in Russia: Putin the politician; the legacy of the Second Chechen War; social divide; and the Kremlin’s manipulation of the legal system in a series of high profile trials. By considering the development of new playwriting alongside the political context of the Putin administration, this thesis demonstrates a fresh perspective on how New Drama’s precarious engagement with Putinism provokes political debate in contemporary Russia, and challenges audience members to consider their own role in Putin’s autocracy. This introductory chapter provides the context for the thesis. It includes a review of previous academic and critical work on contemporary Russian theatre and Putinism, and identifies how this thesis will situate itself in the field of study. It introduces and defines the key terms relating to New Drama and Putinism, which are utilised in my thesis. Finally, the methodological approaches used in carrying out this research will be explained. I begin, however, by setting out and defining my research question and aims. Research Questions and Aims This thesis identifies and examines the development of New Drama, and the movement’s relationship with the social and political context of the Putin era. In particular, this study considers how contemporary theatre makers have employed disparate theatrical modes to challenge the increasing authoritarianism of the Kremlin and provided alternative narratives to the official state discourse. Focusing on new plays produced in the period 2000-2015, this thesis asks whether New Drama has been able to create a new form of social and political engagement in Russian theatre. What is the role of new theatre writing in Putin’s Russia? What role have these theatre 2 For example, writing for the BBC in 2015, Lucy Ash described Teatr.doc as being ‘Russia’s most daring theatre company.’ Ash (2015). 7 makers played in facilitating the enlivening of political debate and the formation of new values that challenge the ideology of Putinism? In examining the relationship between Putinism and contemporary Russian playwriting, ‘Politics and Putinism: A Critical Examination of New Russian Drama’ traces the development of one of the most exciting and original theatrical movements in the twenty-first century: New Drama. In doing so, it offers analysis of theatre makers whose powerful productions have yet to be explored in English-language scholarship. There are four correlative and primary aims of this thesis. The first is to contextualise New Drama in relation to the politics of Putinism through in depth analysis of the case studies. Secondly, it asks how theatre makers have challenged the normative discourse of the Putin regime and staged key political anxieties articulated and identified by scholars and Russian commentators. Thirdly, it investigates how New Drama engages with the nascent opposition movement in Russia.