- Share this article on Facebook
- Share this article on Twitter
- Share this article on Flipboard
- Share this article on Email
- Show additional share options
- Share this article on Linkedin
- Share this article on Pinit
- Share this article on Reddit
- Share this article on Tumblr
- Share this article on Whatsapp
- Share this article on Print
- Share this article on Comment
MOSCOW — Russian police have opened a probe into a play based on Oscar Wilde’s An Ideal Husband staged by Moscow’s MKhT theater, which the Russian Orthodox church slammed as “blasphemous.”
The probe into Idealny Muzh. Komediya (An Ideal Husband. A Comedy), written and directed by Konstantin Bogomolov, was opened in response to complaints by four private individuals questioning whether the play is in compliance with the law, the Russian wire service Interfax reported.
STORY: Russian Actor Ivan Okhlobystin: ‘I Would Put All the Gays Alive Into an Oven’
The police would not disclose the names of the complainants. However, the Russian Orthodox church earlier criticized the performance.
“From my point of view, [the performance] contained the profanation of the crucifix symbol, as an almost totally naked woman imitated it,” Russian Orthodox Church spokesman Vsevolod Chaplin was quoted as saying by Interfax.
In late November, a performance of the play was disrupted by Orthodox activists, who went onstage shouting blasphemy accusations.
Meanwhile, actors involved in the play have shrugged off the accusations of insulting religious feelings.
“If creative issues are to be decided by the police, that will be a real insult to Christianity,” actor Maxim Matveyev said in a statement on the theater’s Facebook page.
“I am a religious person and I play a crook, Father Artemy,” added the actor. “He isn’t really a priest, he is a petty demon, a contemptible Mephistopheles, which is clear from the context of the play.”
Related Stories
THR Newsletters
Sign up for THR news straight to your inbox every day