Slow Sword by Yuri Klavdiev in Russian theatre history

In 2014, the state-run journal, Kultura, named 20 plays which it very embodiment of ‘sleaze, obscenities, pornography, and worthless shamanism disguised as innovation’. In other words, it was a blatant attack on cultural innovators, playwrights, artists who dissent from the dominant state ideology.

The play which heads the list as the most offensive play is “Slow Sword” by Yurii Strike Klavdiev – which Sputnik staged as a world premiere in 2007, even before it was staged in Russia. Sputnik is also the English-language publisher of the Slow Sword, as part of the anthology ‘New Russian Plays’ – BUY A COPY HERE.

This publication was supported by the Translation Institute, an agency of the Russian government.

According to Moscow Times editor, John Freedman, “Yury Klavdiyev, whose violent morality tale ‘The Slow Sword’ leads the list of offending plays, responded with pride to being included among what he called — borrowing a phrase from the Stalin era — ‘enemies of the people.’ “

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