DUSHANBE, March 30, 2009, Asia-Plus  -- The Ministry of Culture (MoC) has given the go-ahead for resumption of performance of “Madness.  93” that was written by known Tajik stage director Barzou Abdurazzoqov.  The performance resumed at the Russian Drama Theatre named after Vladimir Mayakovsky on March 29.

Speaking in an interview with Asia-Plus, Barzou Abdurazzoqov said that he met with senior representatives from the Ministry of Culture and President’s Executive Office on Friday.  “I had to uphold the play for two hours and all in all, we reached a consensus,” Adburazzoqov said, noting that some inconsiderable parts were removed from the play.  “However, this did not affect the wholeness and the meaning of the play,” he added.

We will recall that Tajik authorities banned the play after it premiered at the Mayakovsky Theatre on March 17.

The play is about events in France of the late 18th century and a radical journalist and politician from the French Revolution Jean-Paul Marat before his murder in 1793.  It is based on “93” by Victor Hugo and “The Persecution and Assassination of Jean-Paul Marat” by German playwright Peter Ulrich Weiss..

The Ministry of Culture banned the play without giving any reasons for its decision to ban it.  In the meantime, the author assumes that it is likely that the authorities saw parallels between the themes of the play and events of the mid-1990s in Tajikistan.