The Gogol Center – A new theatre model for Russia

Lecture & Films | 18:30 Lecture and discussion with Valeriy Pecheykin | 19:30 Seven, Film (50 min.) | 20:30 Who reads the signs, Film (118 min.)

Film

The playwright, journalist and long-term dramaturge of the Gogol Center Valeriy Pecheykin will speak about the Gogol Center and its close cooperation with the director and artistic director of the Theater, Kirill Serebrennikov. Two films will then report on the Gogol Center and Kirill Serebrennikov’s work. The film “Seven” by Artem Firsanov was made during Serebrennikov’s one-and-a-half-year house arrest and focuses on the trial of the theatre director for alleged embezzlement. At the same time he reflects on the difficulties of making such a film in today’s Russia.

“Who Reads the Signs” is a film by Kirill Serebrennikov based on his production of the play “Martyrs” by Marius von Mayenburg. At the centre is a pupil who questions the secular teaching content at his school with the help of Bible quotations. Soon the liberal teachers feel more and more cornered until a catastrophe occurs. In Russia, where art exhibitions are stormed by radical orthodox believers and opera productions are dropped because of blasphemy, the film touches a neuralgic point between religious fanaticism and society.