In mid-December 2020, several media outlets reported that Sovremennik, one of the main Moscow theaters, would close due to the death of actor Valentin Gaft. We checked whether such a decision was actually made.
People's Artist of the RSFSR Valentin Gaft died on December 12, 2020. Since 1969, he served at the Sovremennik Theater, on whose stage the farewell ceremony for the actor took place. The day after Gaft’s death, the portal reported the impending closure of Sovremennik "Dni.ru". Subsequently, notes with similar news were published on the website Channel Five, portals News.ru And "Important", as well as in other publications.
The authors of the notes refer to the artistic director of the School of Modern Play theater, Joseph Raikhelgauz. After Gaft's death he published on his Facebook page, a post in which he said goodbye to a friend and colleague. According to journalists, the closure of the theater can be judged by the first phrases from Raikhelgauz’s text: “This morning Sovremennik closed for good.” Legendary, historical, great, beautiful. <...> A long line of people who created it, close in age, in education, in spirit, began to leave exactly with the onset of the 21st century: Efremov, Evstigneev, Kvasha, Lavrova, Ivanova, Tolmacheva, Tabakov, Volchek... And now - Gaft. All".
However, the quote omits one very important clarification. At the point of sharpening in the above phrase it says: “And another will probably arise, but that one will no longer exist.” In other words, Raikhelgauz is talking about a change of eras in the theater, but not at all about its closure. Moreover, since 1989 Raikhelgauz heads The School of Modern Play theater is an institution not associated with the Sovremennik Theater. Probably, journalists were confused by the cognate words “modern” and “contemporary”, which are in the names of theaters.
The news spread in the media about the imminent closure of the theater was quickly denied. Actor Sergei Makovetsky, who has been involved in several theater productions named her “stupidity”: “Gaft, as far as I know, has not worked at Sovremennik for a long time, and has not played plays there for many years. There are other artists there - huge troupes who work wonderfully and perform performances every day.” Commenting on the rumors that had spread, Raikhelgauz himself explained, that reporters had misinterpreted his words, and expressed hope that the theater would have a “long and wonderful life” in the future.
Fake
- https://www.facebook.com/permalink.php?story_fbid=1326232587737515&id=100010523596012
- https://radio1.news/article/iosif-rajhelgauz-oproverg-informatsiyu-o-zakrytii-sovremennika-53124
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