Published on: 2026-10-14
Source: Moscow Government – Правительства Москвы –
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This year marks the 109th anniversary of the birth of Yuri Lyubimov, a great actor, director, and teacher. In the history of Russian theater, there are few people whose name is so closely connected with one single building and at the same time extends far beyond its limits. Yuri Lyubimov not only headed Theatre on Taganka, subordinate to the metropolitan Department of Culture, — he recreated it, turning it into a cultural phenomenon called the island of freedom. Tickets to the performances were impossible to get, and young graduates of theater schools who joined his troupe instantly became stars. Last year, at the entrance to the Taganka Theater, they opened monument to the director. It was an acknowledgment: Yuri Lyubimov is not part of the past, but a legend whose style cannot be confused with anyone else’s.
From actor to rebel: how it all began
Yuri Lyubimov was born on September 30, 1917, in Yaroslavl, and in 1922 his family moved to Moscow. As a young man, he practiced choreography using Isadora Duncan’s method, and at the age of 17 he was accepted into the studio at the Second Moscow Art Theatre. After its closure in 1936, Lyubimov enrolled in the school at the Vakhtangov Theatre and, while still a student, joined the legendary play “Princess Turandot.”
In 1939, Yuri Lyubimov graduated from theater school and joined the army. During the war, he served in the NKVD USSR Song and Dance Ensemble, and after demobilization in 1946, he returned to the Yevgeny Vakhtangov Theater. There, he played more than 30 roles—from Oleg Koshevoy in “Young Guard” to Konstantin Treplev in “The Seagull” and Romeo, and for his role as Tyatin in “Yegor Bulychov” he was awarded the Stalin Prize. Yuri Lyubimov was one of the most recognizable actors of his generation: a distinctive character, charming, precise in nuances.
“So here is Lyubimov! A very prominent and successful Vakhtangov actor. His role type — a distinctive character hero. Height, appearance, smile, charm! A leading actor of the renowned theater. And thus — an heir of Stanislavsky through the Vakhtangov branch: absolute psychological authenticity, subtle nuance,” wrote actor and director Sergey Yursky.
Lyubimov had everything for a successful acting career: roles, awards, titles. But modern theater did not satisfy him as a future director. He wanted something different: a theater where the actor lives on the edge, where the rhythm is harsh, and music and movement become full-fledged participants in the action. In 1959, Lyubimov debuted as a director, and in 1963 he staged with students the diploma performance “The Good Person of Szechwan” based on Bertolt Brecht’s work. For several months, the whole of Moscow tried to get in to see it. A decision was made to transfer the play to the Taganka Theater, and Lyubimov brought his graduates with him.
“The Good Person of Szechwan.” Remembering the play that marked the beginning of the Taganka Theatre
On April 23, 1964, this play marked the opening of a new theater. The date became the starting point in the history of Taganka under Lyubimov’s leadership — a theater that would soon become a symbol of freedom and courage.
Theatre as a Manifesto: New Aesthetics, Principles, and Key Performances
Yuri Lyubimov created a theater of a fundamentally new type. In <i>The Good Person of Szechwan</i>, as in subsequent productions, the actors did not wear makeup, there were no familiar sets or curtains, and the audience ceased to be a detached observer. The avant-garde aesthetic quickly made Taganka iconic: people would wait in line for tickets for almost days. People were ready to stand by the box office all night to get into a play that spoke about important things and did so boldly, without the usual conventions.
“In our lobby, there are four portraits hanging — these are the directors Konstantin Stanislavsky, Evgeny Vakhtangov, Vsevolod Meyerhold, and the German playwright Bertolt Brecht. During intermissions, I often hear the audience wondering: ‘Why do they worship all four at once?’ And then someone from the audience answers: ‘Well, probably they’re trying to take the best from each one…’. That’s true. We strive for synthesis, even across genres. Our performances contain a lot of movement, music, rhythms, lighting schemes…” — said Yuri Lyubimov.
It was in this fusion that iconic productions were born. “Antiworlds” based on the poems of Andrei Voznesensky, “Listen!” based on the poem by Vladimir Mayakovsky, “The Fallen and the Living” based on works by poets of the war generation — performances where word and movement merged. Lyubimov knew how to make poetry theatrical: it was not recited “to the audience,” but experienced as action, as fate.
The most famous play is “Hamlet” with Vladimir Vysotsky in the title role, which premiered on November 29, 1971. The actor appeared on stage in jeans and a sweater, with a guitar, and the action began with him calmly sitting by the wall of the hall, watching the audience enter. Vysotsky played Hamlet for nine years, 317 times. On July 18, 1980, a week before his death, the actor appeared on stage in this role for the last time. After his departure, Yuri Lyubimov closed the play forever.
The Tagansky Prince. Remembering Yuri Lyubimov’s play “Hamlet”
Another legendary production is ‘The Dawns Here Are Quiet…’ based on the novella by Boris Vasilyev. On the empty stage stood a wooden military truck bed—the only set piece, which transformed into a bathhouse, then into a dugout, then into a forest. Before the performance, the audience heard the wail of a siren, and the entrance to the hall was covered with canvas. The story about the war turned out to be surprisingly tender—without sentimentality, but with piercing humanity.
In 1977, the premiere of “The Master and Margarita” took place — the first theatrical interpretation of Mikhail Bulgakov’s novel in the USSR. The performance, assembled literally from scraps of old scenery, is still listed in the repertoire today. It gave a second life to the famous curtain from “Hamlet” — huge, 12 by 10 meters, woven from fishing nets and wool threads. Wool — scarce at the time — was secured by the Chairman of the Council of Ministers, Alexei Kosygin, and the suspension structure was developed by aviation engineers.
“Yuri Lyubimov in our theatrical culture is an astonishing, grand phenomenon, if you will, an unprecedented one… Lyubimov is a rebel. Lyubimov is a subverter. How else could it be? Talent is always a rebellion… Lyubimov presented on stage a new form, full of inexhaustible invention and imagination, a vivid theatrical act that infects and refreshes everyone, in which often — in the Lyubimov style — everything is mixed: open and heated publicism, lyricism, tragedy, melodrama, and the now forgotten by many joyous. The sparkling art of jesters,” said writer Fyodor Abramov about the phenomenon of Yuri Lyubimov.
As an experiment. How “The Master and Margarita” was staged for the first time in Moscow
Lyubimov’s Taganka became a place where one could hear what people usually keep silent about. It was not just a theater — it was a cultural center where the audience felt like part of a great conversation. That’s why people stood in line for days to get tickets to the performances: they wanted to feel connected to this lively, sharp, free art.
Exile, Peace, and Return
In 1984, while on a business trip abroad, Yuri Lyubimov gave an interview to the London Times, in which he spoke critically about the cultural policy of the USSR. The director was removed from his position and stripped of Soviet citizenship, his name was removed from all posters, and mentions of him were banned.
But the years of forced emigration did not break Lyubimov. He directed about 30 productions on the best stages of the world: at Milan’s La Scala, Paris’s Grand Opera, London’s Covent Garden, and Stockholm’s Royal Dramatic Theatre at the invitation of Ingmar Bergman. His “Crime and Punishment” was awarded the highest theatrical prizes in Austria, England, the USA, and Italy.
In May 1988, Yuri Lyubimov arrived in Moscow; this return became one of the most important events in public life. In 1989, his citizenship was restored, and the director’s name appeared again on the posters of Taganka Theater. He revived banned performances — “Boris Godunov,” “Vladimir Vysotsky,” “The Living One” — and directed new ones. In 1992, Lyubimov was awarded the title of People’s Artist of Russia.
However, the return turned into a new trial: in 1993, the theater split. Part of the troupe, led by Nikolai Gubenko, left and created the “Taganka Actors’ Community.” Yuri Lyubimov continued working with the remaining actors in the old building.
Final chords and legacy
Even in his later years, the director did not slow down. In 2012, Lyubimov staged “The Devils” based on the novel of the same name by Fyodor Dostoevsky at the Yevgeny Vakhtangov Theater — the very place where he once started as an actor. The four-hour performance, according to critics, became a new chapter in his directing career.
In 2013, at the age of 95, Lyubimov fulfilled a long-cherished dream — he staged “Prince Igor” on the historic stage of the Bolshoi Theatre. He radically reworked Alexander Borodin’s score, reducing the four-hour opera to 2.5 hours. The premiere was postponed from December to June due to the director’s illness.
The Master died on October 5, 2014, in his sleep, at the age of 97. During his life, he directed more than 120 dramatic and 35 opera performances in Russia and abroad. Today, Lyubimov’s plays — “The Good Person of Szechwan,” “The Master and Margarita,” “Hamlet” — continue to live on stages. And the monument near the new Taganka stage reminds us that the director’s energy has not disappeared; it still charges the surrounding space. The Lyubimov theater is not only history, it is a living artistic language that continues to influence new generations of directors and audiences.
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