Theatre of Cruelty

RFE/RL presents a review of a new play that proved a box-office hit at this week's New Drama Festival in Moscow. Its subject is the Beslan siege. The play's author and director, Mikhail Ugarov, explains some of the background to his involvement with the subject:

Ugarov himself admits he has no clear position on the war. He describes himself and his audience as Russians who feel sympathy neither for Chechen rebel separatists nor for the government bent on destroying them.

He says his aim is to convey that the war has long spilled out of Chechnya and is slowly breeding fear and hatred in the hearts of ordinary Russians:

"Everybody in the country pretends that there is no war, that we all live peacefully and the war is only on television. But the war penetrates everywhere, into the family, the relations with children. People become more aggressive. The war starts provoking a kind of social paranoia. We wanted to show this paranoia, when everyone is an enemy: Chinese, Vietnamese, Jews, Caucasians, Muscovites," Ugarov said.