Mourning for a Good Person: FOMENKO and celebrating his life's lessons

He did not try to adjust to new times, nor did he 

lament the effects of the 

Soviet collapse, but he stayed true to himself, 

letting his natural gift flourish.

He turned freedom into art, overthrowing the 

popular misconception that 

Russian theatre derived its importance and power 

from oppression by the 

regime.

FOMENKO WHO DIED IN MOSCOW AGED 80 WAS A BRILLIANT RUSSIAN THEATRE DIRECTOR

His artistic freedom was no longer constrained by ideology, only by his own unfailing sense of proportion, self-irony and ethics. While his theatre was not reflective of life outside, it was connected to it, for resistance is also a form of connection. He told me at the time that without decency and dignity there could be no theatre

Fomenko deplored cynicism, graft and obsession with money. He countered it not by protest and anger, but by creating a different artistic life, which was more genuine and certainly more liveable than Russia’s imitative reality. 

The obituary and the comments by Prospero are from this week's The Economist. The words convey the essence of the life of the man who shone despite the ideological restrictions, which was not his.

Lesson 1  If you place Ideology before people, you will end up serving another master and your talent would be only as good as a photocopy..

that reminded me of a poem I read while still schoolboy:

Xerox Candy Bar

Ah,
you're just a copy
of all the candy bars
I've ever eaten. 

Richard Brautigan

Fomenko turned his Freedom into Art, condemned 

the obsession with money, which the developing

countries and newly FREE countries blindly follow,

turning good people into robots and local 

psychiatrists and psychologists richer. How to make 

the best of what has come your way, in his case,

Freedom; for many of us, it is also a FREEDOM of

Discovery of another path, to listen and march  to 

another drummer and be courageous in it, the 

happiness naturally follows.

And our own set of rules of morality regarding 

other human beings: be kind, be helpful and dont

be arrogant with whatever little talent you have been

bestowed.

In my travels around the world, I have met people

who embody such principles, in unexpected corners,

Vedado in Cuba, Seri Kembangan in Malaysia, 

Bogor in Indonesia, Muzquiz in Mexico, Walthill

among the American Indians.. the list goes on and on

Thinking of Russia, one is seduced by the

melancholy of its literature, from Sholokov to 

Chekov, with his plays and short stories..Under the

Nevsky Prospekt Cemetery the earth carries so

emotions.. those whose pens turned the russian

of one thousand years..

I am so glad I got to see plays by Chekhov (The

Cherry Orchard, Two Sisters, Uncle Vanya, 

Seagull) during my days as a medical student in

London, staged either at RSC or at the West End,

the other influential playwright of those days was 

Henrik Ibsen with his Hedda Gabler, Wild Duck and 

A Doll's House.

Chekhov is remembered for his wonderful plays 

and novellas but dont forget he was also a 

dedicated doctor...would that have influenced a

budding doctor, away from his home in Australia?

The Economist remains to me one of the best

pleasures of the week, to read in it, flawless 

English language and subject matters not on CNN

or the local rags that call themselves Newspapers

or the Internet News sites such as Yahoo!..The only

exception I would make would be to The New York

Times.. for all those sunday mornings with its thick

edition covering arts in depth along with a fresh 

bagel and lox..