Russian actor slashes wrists in live on-stage protest

A live theatre audience in Ulan-Ude, a city in eastern Siberia, Russia, was left horrified when actor Artur Shuvalov announced his death on stage before he took a knife from his pocket and began to cut his own wrists, reports The Express on Friday March 31.

Shuvalov, a Russian actor cut his wrists in protest against the arrest of his former theatre director, Sergei Levitsky who was fired in 2022 for opposing Vladimir Putin’s war against Ukraine. During a curtain call, he told the audience that he had been bullied by the theatre because he backed the then-director.

The actor also claimed that the theatre had fired his actress wife and was withholding his salary.

Shuvalov told the audience, ‘Throughout the year they have tried to fire me from the theatre, humiliate me, deprive me of work and money.

‘Today they signed a statement, they fired my wife Svetlana Polyanskaya.’

He went on: ‘I don’t want to put up with it. But I have no more strength and no more choice.

‘I don’t want to hear that artists are ‘representatives of the oldest professions.

‘And I believe that our audience is worthy of smart direction, and not as our artistic director says.

‘Please forgive me again. I’m tired. I have no more choice. I want to say just one thing: Vyacheslav Mikhailovich Dyachenko [artistic director], Natalya Nikolaevna Svetozarova [theatre director], these people are to blame for my death.’

Shuvalov then started cutting his right arm, leaving both the audience and fellow cast members in shock, as others raced to help him.

The whole incident was recorded and shared on Twitter.

The actor, who reportedly also has cancer, was taken to hospital and is said to be in a stable condition.

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