UKRAINE/RUSSIA
Cape Town - As orchestra music flowed from the Artscape Theatre during the opening night of Tchaikovsky’s Swan Lake,a small group gathered outside to protest against the Russian ballet performance.
The protest, organised by the Ukrainian Association of South Africa, warned attendees of the potential complicity in war crimes, by stopping theatre patrons to hand out pamphlets while waving the Ukrainian flag.
The association said that since 2020, the Swan Lake performance in South Africa was presented as a product of St Petersburg Ballet Theatre, a Russian classical ballet company.
This year, the name of the company was taken down but the cast remained the same. Weeks before the performance, the presenting company was changed to an Australian company.
Ukrainian Association of South Africa president Kateryna Aloshyna said the association called on the arts and culture community, institutions, and the government to condemn the invasion and war against Ukraine as well as to stop any collaboration with Russian artists.
After its showing at the Artscape, the production will move to the Teatro at Montecasino, Johannesburg, from Wednesday, July 26.
A Change.org petition calling for the “boycott of the St Petersburg Ballet performance in South Africa” has garnered more than 6 000 signatures.
The petition, started on April 20 by Nafo South Africa, called on Computicket, the Artscape and the Teatro at Montecasino to cancel the shows and facilitate refunds for those who had bought tickets.
Change.org digital campaigner Nozuko Poni said: “They started the petition to ask that South Africans boycott the ballet because it is funding the war, in the sense that supporting Russian culture while people are dying in Ukraine is both insensitive and also enables the war.”
Artscape chief executive officer Marlene le Roux said because the Artscape promoted free speech, the protests were not prevented from taking place. The group will protest throughout the ballet’s run at the Artscape.
The production was scheduled to be staged in 2020 at the Artscape but was postponed due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
“Following the outbreak of the war between Russia and Ukraine, we have had multiple engagements with the producer of the show to ascertain if there was any relationship with Russia.
“The producer has indicated that the ballet features dancers from many countries, such as Poland, Japan, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Serbia, UK, Armenia and Russia.
“The producer has assured us that there are no contracts with any Russian companies in respect of this production. Legally, Artscape had no grounds to not honour its contractual obligations towards the producer of the production,” Le Roux said.
The producer of the production and company with which Artscape concluded a contract was with Australian company Global Star Events (Pty) Ltd, she said.