Teatr.doc donates income from play to support political prisoners

24 November 2014 Source: HRO.org (info)  Moscow city & Moscow region  Prisoners  Political prisoners On 24 November 2014, Teatr.doc put on the play Vyatlag (taking its name from the Soviet Vyatka labour camp), all of the proceeds of which go towards supporting political prisoners in Russia.  Radio Svoboda report that at the heart of the piece was the diary of a prisoner in Vyatlag, Latvian Artur Stradinsha, an accountant who in 1941 became one of thousands of prisoners sent to the GULAG for "participation in a counterrevolutionary organisation".  The director of the play, Boris Pavlovich, was personally confronted with political repression — one of the main themes of the play — not long ago. One of his students, Leonid Kovyazin, was arrested in connection with the Botolnaya Square case. Kovyazin's wife Evgeniya Tarasova was involved in the play.  Before the end of the year, Teatr.doc will host the play's official premiere which will be dedicated to the Bolotnaya prisoners.  Translated by Helen Corbett