In Search of ‘ the Real ’ - Teatr.doc ’ s Documentary Reflections on Politics, Law and Art Lisa Wolfson (Bochum) Teatr.doc, with its focus on current socio-critical topics, stands out in Moscow ’ s theatre landscape and presents itself as a creative site of negotiation for alternative discourses that have been banished from traditional mass media to social networks. The artists in this small theatre defy restrictions on freedom of speech with brave productions, readings, film screenings and discussions. In the documentary re-productions of grotesque interrogations and criminal proceedings, even the political performances of Pussy Riot and Petr Pavlensky gain an irritating meta-level on the stage of this off-theatre. The unique combination of real and fictive events truly develops its own specific momentum when members of the police force or religious activists loyal to the government storm theatre events. This article looks into the manifold amalgamations of reality and fiction in the context of Teatr.doc and examines its political significance. Teatr.doc stands out in Moscow ’ s theatre culture due to its focus upon recent sociocritical topics, presenting itself as a creative communication portal for alternative discourses that have been widely banned in traditional mass media. The artists of the small Teatr.doc fight against the suppression of free expression with courageous productions, readings, film screenings and discussions. For instance, the political performances of Pussy Riot and Petr Pavlensky gain a jarring meta-level on the scene of this off-theatre by the documentary re-staging of grotesque hearings and criminal trials. The unique blend of real and staged events develops its own peculiar dynamics when the police or ‘ religious activists ’ who are loyal to the government storm the theatre. My analysis follows the multitude of amalgamations of reality and fiction in the context of Teatr.doc and examines its political significance. The limitations of the freedom of opinion and expression that we observe in Russia today become especially tangible in art. The media-induced rise of the so-called ‘ patriotic mindset ’ in Russian society, within the political elites and even among the art community, combined with the revival of ‘ state art ’ and its favoured ‘ state artists ’ , results in a growing gap between institutionalised art and its independent, radical alternatives. Teatr.doc represents the free scene and its artistic innovations like no other theatre in the Russian Federation. As emphasized by theatre scholar Molly Flynn, this “ [d]ocumentary theatre company [. . .] has been lauded internationally for its hardhitting plays about contemporary Russia ” . 1 According to her, ‘ Documentary theatre ’ is used as an umbrella term to describe different types of plays that make an explicit claim to being rooted in factual material. Such plays often incorporate verbatim interviews, historical documents, or autobiographical narratives and address topics as varied as romance, family, history, and current events. 2 Despite getting commissions from the Ministry of Culture to produce ambitious social projects involving participation of students Forum Modernes Theater, 29/ 1-2 (2014 [2018]), 81 - 89. Gunter Narr Verlag Tübingen or convicts, Teatr.doc emphasizes its status as an “ autonomous non-profit organisation 3 and represents an ensemble as well as a specific space of encounter for the audience, the theatre-makers of ‘ the Doc ’ and its diverse guests. In times of limited freedom of assembly, Teatr.doc ’ s stage offers an interactive refuge for meeting and exchanging artistic-intellectual reflections. History and Repertoire The Doc “ was founded in 2002 by a group of writers who couldn ’ t find a theatre willing to stage their documentary-style writing. Practically all its plays are verbatim, created on the basis of long interviews with actual people. ” 4 The theatre ’ s short history reveals an important development: At first, Teatr.Doc ’ s playwrights and directors focused mainly on social issues such as the plight of prisoners, migrant workers, drug addicts and people treated like outcasts after being infected with HIV. [. . .] But from 2010 onwards, the plays became more critical of the government, says John Freedman, a Moscow-based translator, writer and specialist on Russian theatre, 5 and his words can be easily confirmed by the Doc ’ s repertoire, exposing the prominence of political topics: One Hour Eighteen. The Trial that Wasn ’ t but Has to Be (2010) deals with the imprisonment, torture and death of attorney Sergei Magnitsky. Bolotnoye Delo (2015) refers to the so-called Bolotnaya Square case. This “ play [is] about ” the severe consequences of the Bolotnaya Square demonstration of 2012, when tens of thousands protested against Vladimir Putin ’ s return to the presidency for a third term. The work is based on interviews with the families of demonstrators who ended up in jail. 6 I also have to mention the stinging satire about a horrific Berlusconi/ Putin hybrid: Berlusputin (2012) - an adaptation of Dario Fo ’ s L ’ anomalo bicefalo (The Two-headed Anomaly). 7 The Magnitsky Case: The Trial that Wasn ’ t but Has to Be Regarding Teatr.doc ’ s relationship to the social systems of politics and law, we have to keep an eye on its explicit orientation towards reality, which this theatre even carries in its name. The traces of factual events presented by the Doc neither claim a naïve mapping of ‘ reality ’ nor consider ‘ the real ’ as something ‘ pure ’ , monolithic and absolute. Taking into account that reality always appears structured and fragmented to us, each play offers a specifically textured intensification of occurrences. Such a condensation of reality in the Doc ’ s works is not homogeneous but always multi-perspectival and in a certain way relative, although - to phrase it a little more pointedly - arrest, torture and death cannot be challenged (on stage) as real, physically experienced acts. After he had uncovered the biggest tax fraud in Russian history, Sergei Magnitsky was arrested on fabricated charges and held in government custody for over eleven months before he died on 16 November 2009 - eight days before the Russian legal limit of one year ’ s detention without a trial./ The injustice of Magnitsky ’ s arrest, imprisonment, and murder, as well as attempts to cover up the institutional corruption in the handling of his case, were the initial inspiration for playwright Elena Gremina and director Mikhail Ugarov to begin work on One Hour Eighteen, a play whose title denotes the seventy-eight minutes during which Magnitsky was beaten to death by an ‘ emergency medical team ’ who were supposedly attending to his critical medical condition behind the closed doors of a prison cell. 8 82 Lisa Wolfson (Bochum) While this drama takes a firm line pro humanity and contra torture by “ stag[ing] an imagined trial of the prison and medical staff directly involved in the days before the death of Magnitsky ” 9 as well as of the judges responsible for his prolonged preliminary detention and the scornful neglect of his numerous complaints about the awful conditions in jail, other plays proceed in subtler ways and even avoid evaluating the events. Insulted Feelings (2011) thus merely juxtaposes different positions (similar to the arte povera) and illuminates the conflict between enraged orthodox believers and violent religious activists on the one hand and artists who are critical of religion on the other as monologues in a psychologically convincing manner. In this play the viewers are simply observers. In One Hour Eighteen (1 Hour 18), however, the spectators are transformed into judges, and actors appear as accused incumbents justifying themselves to an imaginary court of law. Their cynical and unabashed explanations of the circumstances interlock, relentlessly revealing the whole spectrum of an inhuman system. Unlike with Insulted Feelings, it was not possible to interview the people directly involved in the real events concerning Magnitsky beforehand. Preparing 1 Hour 18 was exceptionally difficult because people were afraid to speak out publicly and asked that all recording devices should be turned off while interviewing. Besides court files, journalistic input and Magnitsky ’ s letters, the material for the play consisted of anonymized testimonies provided by other employees of the penal system, contributions from jail doctors found in internet fora, etc. The Doc always focuses on saving and preserving a multi-layered reality from state censorship and propaganda, which habitually seek to create a one-dimensional and absolute representation of reality. As Flynn has argued, the astonishing blossoming of the documentary genre in Russia is also a desperate attempt to counteract the collective traumata of the past (forced and suppressed narratives, archives that often remain inaccessible to the present day, the lack of a national debate about Stalinism etc.). Accordingly, 1 Hour 18 aims at overcoming this older problematic past that explicitly overshadows the present. 10 Approaching ‘ the Real ’ : The Documentary Method On small independent Russian stages, documentary theatre is not just a trend that has been imported with some delay from the West. The genre emerged in the early 2000 s within the so-called “ New Russian Drama ” (NRD), an extremely fertile movement that only recently has attracted attention of researchers and as yet has not been the object of comprehensive analysis. 11 NRD challenges the textual and performative cultivation of indigenous and international classics, a common practice in Russia, questioning the dusty notion of escapist ‘ beauty ’ . The movement also distances itself from flat entertainment and from (the revival of) that pathos formerly typical of Soviet theatre and society. 12 Instead, it is drawn to the profane and mundane (including things and language of everyday life) as well as to the problematic and marginalized. NRD is interested in what happens here and now and concentrates strongly on ‘ the real ’ - which is exactly what the genre of documentary theatre (and with it Teatr.doc) specializes in. Under the prevailing political conditions, the documentary techniques utilized by the Doc seem especially appropriate, because they allow for informing the audience and inducing spectators to develop their own opinions. Teatr.doc artists strive to achieve these goals without indoctrinating the viewers or persuading them of something contradictory to their own beliefs 83 In Search of ‘ the Real ’ - Teatr.doc ’ s Documentary Reflections on Politics, Law and Art by using suggestive aesthetic or rhetorical means. The Doc refers to the most radical form of this aspiration as “ zero position ” . We should realize that relying on existing material alone is the obvious flaw of a straight documentary approach, for it can bring to light hidden issues and put them under discussion exclusively by way of selection and combination. It is true that Teatr.doc considers the audience smart and imaginative enough to fill up the ostentatious or subtle gaps in the presentation of factual material. Nevertheless, the Doc does not reject fictional expansions and clear aestheticization techniques completely; they are simply used rarely (for instance, in case of deliberately obscured facts) and with great caution, as proved by 1 Hour 18 - its last scene unfolding in the stated afterworld, which appears just like the very substantial hell of reality experienced in jail. Characterized by the desired purity and sobriety of aesthetic presentation, the documentary approach reacts with its formal clarity to a number of diverse processes of making boundaries porous. These processes not only affect social spheres and institutions but also various ideological systems and appear surreal in a European country of the 21st century. The separation of powers is dissolving. Church and State, a religious veneration of the Czar and a renascent Stalin cult are intermixing with each other. Fragments of the USSR ideology and elements of the Russian Orthodox tradition form a new monstrous entity leading to a continuous veiling of perception and creating a fuzziness in people ’ s minds. As a result, society becomes more amenable to manipulation and propaganda. The documentary approach of the Doc counteracts these devastating boundary dissolutions and the absurd events associated with them. Thus, it partly replaces those institutions that have lost credibility as a result of these processes. The small theatre creates a space for convening and for discussion (these are no longer allowed in the public sphere), for an honest report or feature - no longer available on TV - and ultimately for “ The Trial that Wasn ’ t but Should Have Been ” . 13 Witness Theatre. The Pussy Riot Case: A Trial That Was The degree of fictionalization or the configuration of the mixed relationship between reality and fiction depends on the topic presented on stage and varies according to the chosen form of portrayal. Although the Doc team received many play submissions about the Pussy Riot case by young writers in 2012 and 2013, the directors regarded the fictional form as inadequate; having the convicted women be portrayed by actresses appeared to be inappropriate to them. Instead, they opted for the context of the socalled witness theatre. In The Trial. The Sequel, the former Pussy Riot lawyers, two journalists and the husband of one of the imprisoned activists report about the first trial. The young women convicted for their Punk Prayer performance in the Christ the Saviour Cathedral (Moscow) and the resulting viral video clip mocking the unhealthy bond between Patriarch Kirill and president Putin are not able to participate in this witness session; their antagonists involved in the absurd trial would not come. The witnesses sit on chairs placed on the flat stage, two Doc directors - Mikhail Ugarov and Varvara Faer - act as hosts, and the audience is partly involved by posing questions or making comments. Everybody in the overcrowded basement painted in black seems excited. The atmosphere is solemn, humorous and intimate at the same time. Ugarov explains the experimental presentation method chosen for this evening and asks what characters the spectators are interested in seeing portrayed on 84 Lisa Wolfson (Bochum) stage. Members of the audience make proposals: the notorious judge Syrova (who denied meals and sleep to the prisoners during the trial period), a priest (who suggested to burn the three woman) and the Cathedral ’ s female candle keeper (as a representative of the aggrieved all of whom expressed their insulted religious feelings in almost identical words) are among the nominees written down on the wall with a piece of chalk by Faer. These real people seem to have already been transformed into fictional characters, in a trial that was but shouldn ’ t have been. The audience votes, and the witnesses start with the detailed portrait of the judge telling about their absurd experiences with her and describing her ridiculous Soviet habitus (her manner of interacting, of speaking and even of dressing). 14 It is important to question whether this form of presentation should be regarded as theatre essentially - or as a (quite unusual) talk setting instead. In any case, in The Trial. The Sequel the witnesses involved recall their mutual experiences and express them in the public space of the theatre. According to Faer, such a form of portrayal produces “ a fragment of our concentrated life ” (or rather of reality), which can be presented in the same way only once, 15 since any further repetition would prompt the participants of the witness theatre to enact themselves. 16 A few months later, there was a similar session with the activists ’ friends, as well as with a member of the group who had been released on parole, Yekaterina Samutsevich. Pussy Riot. The Sequel portrays, amongst other things, the visit of Maria Alyokhina ’ s and Nadezhda Tolokonnikova ’ s friends to the penal colonies far away from Moscow. Video footage is shown in between the reports: there is some material illegally filmed by the visitors as well as footage that is accessible on YouTube, all referring to these colonies and the extensive transport of the convicts. Additionally, the personalities of the three women are presented and reflected through a scheme that is implemented by the host Faer. 17 Reflecting (the Nexus of) Law, Politics and Art Inevitably, Russia ’ s penal system as featured in the disturbing 1 Hour 18 also becomes a topic of Pussy Riot. The Sequel, since it is once again generated by the reality of the case. The prison regime has also been treated as an important societal concern in other contexts of Teatr.doc productions. Reflections on the prisons and the integration of former convicts into the theatrical space serve as proof of the importance of the legal system within the Doc ’ s artistic-intellectual explorations. Scandalous verdicts and the antecedent dangerous accusations of extremism provide topics which are portrayed on the stage of this small, unconventional theatre. The absurd charges result not only in bans of specific media (also theatre-related) contents, but sometimes even in actual imprisonment. It is obvious that Russian politics and law are interwoven in the broadest sense. Especially regarding the political trials, their intimacy cannot be ignored. The interconnection between the political and legal systems is highly important for the Doc ’ s approach. How tightly politics and the legal sphere are really merged is something that becomes apparent more explicitly in the numerous reflected and re-enacted, politically motivated trials and interrogations presented by the Doc - whether it is in the testimony of the Pussy Riot show trial, in 1 Hour 18, Bolotnoye delo or in Petr Pavlensky ’ s interrogation protocols (read out by actors), in which the radical performance artist discusses art with the investigator in charge - right after one of his actions. 18 85 In Search of ‘ the Real ’ - Teatr.doc ’ s Documentary Reflections on Politics, Law and Art Finally, art leads us into the third and central sphere of the Doc. As a theatre (with professional actors and directors) the Doc is rooted in arts. At the same time, this theatre programmatically explores the topics of real, contemporary life. Even productions and plays based on fiction (about historical personalities and contexts) rely on existing sources and bridge gaps to the audience ’ s present-day reality. One could say that Teatr. doc ’ s everlasting search for adequate presentations and representations of reality almost inevitably implies a latent reflection of art and life. But in its broadly diverse productions (both in terms of form and content), the Doc strives for an explicit understanding of the complex relationships between life and art - or reality and fiction, appearance and reality, authenticity and staging. The Doc ’ s actors are meant to perceive and question their position in theatre and in life. For instance, Beyond Theatre. And What if I Don ’ t (2015) is a production about very different actors who reflect on their own occupation. Remarkably, some of them have left the stage to start new careers, but they still come to the Doc to be part of the play. This creates a certain ambivalence concerning their status as (professional) artists. Conversation about Art It is notable that art and artists become protagonists in many plays and events of the Doc. Conversation about Art with Petr Pavlensky is not a play but a talk offering a very ambitious intellectual approach to the topic of being an artist. 19 To watch Pavlensky speak about his notion of art provides a very specific performative experience (based on a significant contrast), for in his voicelessly performed radical actions he reshapes his body into ‘ living images ’ (sewing up his lips, cutting off his earlobe or nailing his scrotum to the pavement of the Red Square) and their representations circulating in the media. The conversation with Pavlensky deals with the definition, meaning and function of art for both the artist and society. As usual, on the stage of the Doc the focus is upon the relationship between art and politics. Pavlensky distinguishes two forms of art: 1. art which, in terms of content or form (or both) illustrates and organizes the societal and political system it inhabits, and 2. a different kind of art which becomes independent in its risky play with meaning and form. This art emancipates itself and the artist. Although all art cannot exist untouched by the system it was born in, only the second form is political - especially when it does not illustrate or decorate the interests of any political party. According to Pavlensky, the meaning of this kind of political art rarely appears in ways which are accessible to the majority of society, simply because it is not bare and ordinary agitation. This kind of art fights to be recognized as art and makes social problems visible (instead of following the predictable and already interpreted conflicts). It serves as a litmus test for the system and unveils, for instance, how constitutionally guaranteed values of freedom are or are not respected in a postulated democracy. It also has the capacity to disclose to what extent state and religion have merged. (This is the case with Pussy Riot ’ s Punk Prayer.) As maintained and shown by Pavlensky, radical political performance art debunks the system by seducing or ‘ forcing ’ representatives of the state to certain actions. Pussy Riot ’ s scandalous performance was involuntarily prolonged - during custody, in trial, in the penal colonies and beyond. In contrast, Pavlensky ’ s actions rely on, and integrate, the reactions of the system. Hence, the real performance is not the spectacular initial living image created by him but the institutional answer to it. 20 86 Lisa Wolfson (Bochum) Different Types of Performance It may be useful to consider the complex aftermath of radical performance art as postperformance and to keep the term metaperformance for the artistic-intellectual reflection of this kind of art in Teatr.doc (and elsewhere). 21 Yet unfiltered reality hit the Doc ’ s meta-sphere quite unexpectedly, and the borders of all these phenomena seem to blur: the so-called orthodox activists undertook a poor attempt, by disrupting the afore mentioned eyewitness theatre production about the Pussy Riot trial. Not quite “ [a]t the end of the show, ‘ Orthodox Christians ’ entered the hall with an NTV crew and started shouting: ‘ Repent! ’ , ‘ Why do you hate the Russian people? ’” 22 In her article Ash reports about another notable event: “ one evening in December, as it started screening clips from a documentary on the political turmoil and bloodshed in Ukraine, police from a special anti-extremism division burst in and marched everyone out into the courtyard. ” Ash cites Yelena Gremina, famous author of 1 Hour 18 and director of Teatr.doc, who tells us: “ The place had been ransacked [. . .] They ’ d kicked a door in, you could see their boot marks all over it - they trashed the office and dressing room, scattered make up on the floor, smashed up our scenery - it was awful ” . During the attack, “ three people from the theatre had been arrested and [. . .] laptops and other material were being taken out of the office ” . The theatre and its director were even officially accused “ of extremism ” , but the “ case [. . .] was [later] dropped ” . 23 This time the Ministry of Culture delivered a cynically staged performance filmed “ by an NTV news team ” . 24 The public screening was cancelled due to an alleged bomb threat, only to be continued in private for the official representatives of the Ministry. Meanwhile, the visitors of the theatre were trapped in the icy atrium as the socalled anti-extremism unit pretended to search for explosives. Conclusion: Relationship of Theatre and Critique In contemporary theatre practice in Western societies as part of the cultural scene, a dominating quasi-ritual critique aims at calming the artists ’ and spectators ’ conscience but not at changing societal contexts. An important intention of the GTW Congress Theater as Critique 2016 was to analyze such pseudo-critical attitudes and to criticize them. 25 In the case of Russia with its partly implicit and partly explicit religious and political censorship, we realize that the critique issue must be evaluated somewhat differently - although questionable forms of critique exist there as well. They might even produce an effect contrary to the original intention, as Gremina pointed out in a panel discussion (1 June 2015, Berliner Schaubühne). According to her, the notorious critique of Putin in opposition circles not only belongs to a cult built around his personality but may actually also strengthen his position. Awareness of the problems provoked by the threatening ritualization of critique could lead to the following questions: Will Teatr.doc ’ s work in the end just vanish ‘ into thin air ’ without further consequences while only addressing an already convinced audience? Has it been integrated into the societal mainstream? And could this theatre paradoxically be instrumentalized by Putin ’ s regime for its own causes? I have tried to show how Teatr.doc prevents such dangers by touching politically neuralgic points with sophisticated and subtle artistic interventions. The Doc is an instructive example of a critique that involves its spectators, their knowledge, atti- 87 In Search of ‘ the Real ’ - Teatr.doc ’ s Documentary Reflections on Politics, Law and Art tudes and possible reactions (approval, indifference or rejection) into the reflection about an appropriate form of presentation and the thrust of each play (or theatrical event) as well as the political conditions under which it acts. Teatr.doc faces the permanent threat not only of being obstructed, disturbed and wrecked by the current political regime but also of potentially being shut down completely at any moment. Each decision for an actual specific topic is a testing, a walk on a fine line between risking the existence of the theatre and betraying one ’ s own moral and political principles. 26 Notes 1 Molly Flynn, “ Lights up: for Teatr.doc, Russia ’ s most controversial theatre company, the show must go on ” , in: The Calvert Journal (12 March 2015), http: / / calvertjournal.com/ articles/ show/ 3739/ Teatr-doc-reopening-doc umentary-theatre-moscow-Mikhail-Ugarov [accessed 21 October 2016]. 2 Ibid. 3 See Yelena Gremina, ‘Театр .Doc ’ : Право славные едва не сорвали спектакль о суде над Pussy Riot, НТВ вела съемку “‘ Teatr Doc ’ : Orthodox Activists Nearly Disrupted the Play about the Trial of Pussy Riot, NTV was Filming ” , in: http: / / www.teatrdoc. ru/ news.php? nid= 354 [accessed 21 October 2016]. 4 Lucy Ash, “ Russia ’ s most daring theatre company ” , in: BBC News. Magazine (16 April 2015), http: / / www.bbc.com/ news/ magazine-32320896 [accessed 15 October 2016]. 5 Ibid. 6 Ibid. 7 See ibid. 8 Molly Flynn, “ The Trial That Never Was: Russian Documentary Theatre and the Pursuit of Justice ” , in: New Theatre Quarterly, 30 (2014), pp. 307 - 317, here p. 307. 9 Ibid. 10 See ibid, pp. 315 and 317. 11 See John Freedman, “ More than Mere Drama: The Phenomenon of New Russian Drama. An Introduction ” , in: John Freedman (ed.), Real and Phantom Pains. An Anthology of New Russian Drama, Washington, DC 2014, pp. 3 - 15. 12 See also Georg Genoux, “ Die Entdeckung der Realität. Das teatr.doc und das Joseph Beuys Theater in Moskau ” , in: Boris Nikitin, Carena Schlewitt and Tobias Brenk (Edd.), Dokument, Fälschung, Wirklichkeit. Materialband zum zeitgenössischen Dokumentarischen Theater. Berlin 2014, pp. 98 - 109. 13 Flynn, “ The Trial That Never Was ” , p. 307; her translation slightly alters the meaning of the original phrase, see above. 14 See the footage of Свидетельский театр : о суде над группой “ Pussy Riot ” [Witness Theatre about the Trial of the Band “ Pussy Riot ” ] (27 August 2012), D: Mikhail Ugarov and Varvara Faer, in: https: / / www.youtube. com/ watch? v=r9LL2E5lyFo [accessed 22 October 2016]. 15 See Pussy Riot как зеркало раскола [Pussy Riot as a Mirror of Division], D: Mikhail Gutkin and Sergey Gusev, in: https: / / www. youtube.com/ watch? v=okVQXxq_Qbs [accessed 22 October 2016], TC 0: 0: 27 - 0: 1: 04. 16 See Ugarov ’ s introduction to Witness Theatre About the Trial of the Band “ Pussy Riot ” . 17 See the footage of Pussy Riot. Продолжение [Pussy Riot. The Sequel], D: Varvara Faer (9 January 2013), in: https: / / www.youtube. com/ watch? v=VkqFOl8lpL4 [accessed 22 October 2016]. Faer also showed a different version in the USA (at Columbia University in the City of New York) with other participants and including a quite serious but still peaceful debate of the performance (see Pussy Riot as a Mirror of Division). 18 See Павленский . Свобода [Pavlensky. Freedom], RU 2016, D: Daria Hrenova, in: https: / / www.youtube.com/ watch? v=FtJuCh- ME_rU [accessed 22 October 2016]. 19 See the footage of Петр Павленский - Разговор об искусстве [Petr Pavlensky- Conversation about Art] (17 September 2016) with Mikhail Ugarov and Petr Pavlensky, in: https: / / www.youtube.com/ watch? 88 Lisa Wolfson (Bochum) v=YWTywV8S_FI [accessed 23 October 2016], TC 0: 12: 56 - 0: 16: 19. With regard to the later controversy between Pavlensky and Teatr.doc, especially concerning the ethical, juridical and political significance of this obscure issue (which includes sexual assault claims against the artist), see: Sasha Raspopina, “ Pyotr Pavlensky: does a leading Russian art activist deserve unconditional support? ” , in: The Calvert Journal (1 February 2017), https: / / calvertjournal.com/ comment/ show/ 7602/ petr-pavlensky-case-investigation-liberal-reaction [accessed 8 February 2017]. 20 See Petr Pavlensky - Conversation about Art. 21 For a different use of the second term see Milo Rau, “ Pussy Riot ’ s Moscow Trials: Restaging Political Protest and Juridical Metaperformance ” , in: Alex Flynn, Jonas Tinius (eds.), Anthropology, Theatre, and Development. The Transformative Potential of Performance, New York 2015, pp. 279 - 285. 22 Anonymous: “ Attempt made to disrupt documentary theater production of Pussy Riot trial ” , in: Interfax Religion (28 August, 2012), http: / / www.interfax-religion.com/ ? act=news &div=9794 [accessed 22 October 2016]. 23 See Ash, “ Russia ’ s most daring theatre company ” . 24 Flynn, “ Lights up: for Teatr.doc ” . 25 See Nikolaus Müller-Schöll, “ Die Fiktion der Kritik ” , in: Theater Heute 11 (2016), pp. 28 - 31. 26 This article was completed in February 2018 shortly before the unexpected death of Mikhail Ugarov and Yelena Gremina. Playwright, director and Teatr.doc founder Mikhail Ugarov died of heart attack on 1 April 2018 at the age of 62. Yelena Gremina, his wife and co-founder of Teatr.doc, followed him only six weeks later. She died on 16 May aged 61 of kidney and heart failure. 89 In Search of ‘ the Real ’ - Teatr.doc ’ s Documentary Reflections on Politics, Law and Art