A performance of Chekhov's The Seagull at the LaMaMa Experimental Theater Club illustrates the profound emotional turmoil faced by artists in Russia post-Ukraine invasion. As sirens blare and destruction unfolds through social media, the actors grapple with overwhelming shock while preparing to stage a play. This moment of processing trauma mirrors the broader experience of those witnessing Putin's long reign. The article highlights how shock can dissipate, yet life forces people to endure and carry on, drawing parallels to similar feelings across the world, particularly in the U.S. amid ongoing societal challenges.
We witness the shock and disbelief, the feeling of utter impossibility of staying in one's country, one's city, one's skin that so many people in Moscow experienced.
I'm interested in something else: that moment when the shock fades and the (figurative) show goes on.
Living in and reporting on Russia when Vladimir Putin took and consolidated power, I was shocked many times.
I couldn't breathe when Russia annexed Crimea in 2014, and when the opposition leader Aleksei Navalny was poisoned in 2020.
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