Rebel Moscow theatre shuts doors after final show

A Russian theatregoer poses with a backdrop as he waits for a recent performance in the Gogol Centre in Moscow. Photo: AFP

The Gogol Centre theatre, one of the last bastions of artistic freedom in Vladimir Putin's Russia, shut its doors recently with a defiant final show called I Don't Take Part In War.

The emotional play protesting against the Kremlin's military intervention in Ukraine marked a dramatic end of an era for the Russian capital's ever-shrinking opposition and intelligentsia circles.