Ukrainian organization in Germany urges Berlin theater to drop Russian play seen as promoting imperial narratives

The Ukrainian community organization in Germany, Vitsche Berlin, has called on Berlin’s HAU Hebbel am Ufer theater to cancel the upcoming performance of “Museum of Uncounted Voices” by Russian playwright Marina Davydova, arguing that the play reproduces imperial Russian perspectives under the guise of satire.

Scheduled to run through Nov. 2-11, the production, the community says, risks normalizing narratives that minimize or distort the reality of Russia’s ongoing war against Ukraine. 

Vitsche Berlin said that it supports Ukrainian allies in Berlin’s cultural and political spheres, values artistic freedom and open dialogue, and respects HAU Hebbel am Ufer’s reputation as a progressive theater.

“However, we believe that cultural institutions bear an ethical responsibility for the narratives and particular works of art they choose to host, particularly in times of violent conflicts, such as the ongoing Russian war against Ukraine,” the organization stated in its letter to the theater.

Davydova, a long-standing member of the Russian theater community, presents herself as a liberal émigré, yet she reproduces the same logic underpinning Russia’s aggressive war against Ukraine.

The play frames Russian imperial narratives as satire, portrays the annexation of Ukrainian territories as a “voluntary joining,” and claims to speak for peoples who have suffered under Russian and Soviet aggression.

This approach reflects a condescending attitude toward the victims and reduces their histories to a caricature of suffering, the organization said.

“Platforming such narratives, especially those emerging from cultural elites in russia, risks reproducing imperial frames and blurring the distinction between aggressor and victim, coloniser and colonised,” the statement said.

According to Vitsche Berlin, the “Museum of Uncounted Voices” is not an act of self-reflection but a sophisticated attempt to bolster Russian exceptionalism under the cover of irony and victimhood.

“Without proper contextualisation, such framing becomes dangerous, misleading and insensitive for the groups directly affected by russian aggression today,” the letter said.