INSIDE
Blue Period about
more than color E8
TV: Actress behind scene-stealing
queen in “Bridgerton” E13BY SARAH L. KAUFMANA couple of months ago, ballerina
Olga Smirnova was soaring across the
vast Bolshoi Theatre stage in “Swan
Lake.” Celebrated actor Chulpan
Khamatova, fresh off her star turn at
Moscow’s S tate Theatre of Nations, was
planning a vacation. And theater direc-
tor Dmitry Krymov was finishing up his
first feature film, “Everything Is Okay.”
The title was meant as sarcasm, but
the irony is even sharper now. To day, a ll
three Russian artists are living in self-
imposed exile, prompted by their oppo-
sition to the war in Ukraine. Smirnova
quit the Bolshoi and joined the Dutch
National Ballet. Khamatova, who had
voiced support for Russian President
Vladimir Putin, has decided to remain
in Riga, where she went on holiday
before the war. Both women have is-
sued antiwar statements.
Krymov is in Philadelphia, readying
a new production of Anton Chekhov’s
“The Cherry Orchard” at the Wilma
Theater, scheduled long before the in-
vasion of Ukraine. But for now, he has
no plans to return home to Russia, he
said in a recent interview.
Such a rupture with the motherland
is not done lightly. These artists have
broken free of the invisible web that
envelops virtually all the arts in Russia
— a web of state influence and funding
in which they’ve built their careers,
knowing that the government has had
a hand in just about everything they’ve
done, but also knowing that it is point-
less to object.
In most cases, artists in Russia owe
nearly everything to the state. It pays
their salaries, builds their theaters,
provides the time and space to pursue
their art — within limits. The arts and
the state are inextricably entwined and
have been for centuries, whether that
has meant holding one’s nose and bow-
ing to czarist desires, Soviet control or
Putin.
“A ll the money for theater in Russia
is coming from the government,” Kry-
mov said. “So how can you breathe if
you’re living next door to a polluting,
heavy-metal plant? There is no other
air that you can find. So you breathe the
polluted air.”
The draining of artists from Russia
since the war began presents an oppor-
tunity to reflect on this system and its
impact on the artists themselves. What
is it like to be a Russian artist now? And
with the ruthlessness of Putin’s g overn-
ment exposed for the world to see,
impossible for anyone on the state
payroll to ignore, what does that mean
for the future of artists in Russia?
Until recently, Russian artists “felt
relatively free,” Krymov said over Zoom
from Philadelphia, through an inter-
preter. “I did what I wanted, I directed
the shows that I wanted.” The war
changed everything.
“When you see that there are mass
murders going on, and blood is pour-
ing,” he said, “and you cannot even
name the thing that is happening, and
you have to express your support and
say that the murders are an effort to
free the people who are being mur-
dered, then it doesn’t really matter
what we’re doing in the theater. I don’t
want to participate in it.”
To be an artist in Russia has usually
meant some degree of compromise —
stay away from political controversies,
don’t openly criticize the government
— and now artists “are evaluating
whether those deals were worth it,”
said Misha Kachman, a Russian-born
SEE ARTISTS ON E15What it’s like
to be an artist
from Russia
amid the war
JOANNE LEE/WASHINGTON POST ILLUSTRATION; GRAMMY: JULIO CORTEZ/ASSOCIATED PRESS; BILLIE EILISH: VALERIE MACON/AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE/GETTY
IMAGES; DOJA CAT: JAVIER TORRES/AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE/GETTY IMAGES; H.E.R.: FRAZER HARRISON/GETTY IMAGES; J ON BATISTE: MIKE COPPOLA/GETTY IMAGES;
JUSTIN BIEBER: RONALD MARTINEZ/GETTY IMAGES; KANYE WEST: PASCAL LE SEGRETAIN/GETTY IMAGES; LADY GAGA: VIANNEY LE CAER/ INVISION/
ASSOCIATED PRESS; LIL NAS X: MIKE COPPOLA/GETTY IMAGES; OLIVIA RODRIGO: JORDAN STRAUSS/INVISION/ASSOCIATED PRESS;
TAYLOR SWIFT: DIMITRIOS KAMBOURIS/GETTY IMAGES; TONY BENNETT: JAMIE MCCARTHY/GETTY IMAGES
BY CHRIS RICHARDSThe Grammys are hulking out this year, expanding the nominee slate in the top
categories from eight to 10 — which makes for some mind-breaking math: Someone
ostensibly could win one of the night’s four biggest trophies with only 11 percent of
the vote. ¶ Numbers, shmumbers, right? The idea here is that “bigger”
means “more inclusive,” which doesn’t really make sense. Improving
inclusivity is a noble and essential goal for the Recording Academy, but
Grammy night is fundamentally about prestige — and the only way to
transform something inherently exclusive into something more inclusive is by
inviting new people and dismissing the same-olds. But the Academy is horrible at
breaking bad habits. Plus, after that 11 percent thing, asking organizers to balance an
equation is probably too much. SEE GRAMMYS ON E14An overcrowded list
for album of the year
KLMNO
Arts&Style
SUNDAY, APRIL 3 , 2022. SECTION E EZ EE