Russian Theater Takes on Putin in Rare Satire

A bare-chested Vladimir Putin strokes the bottom of an Olympic gymnast and overdoses on Botox as his wife Lyudmila takes refuge in a monastery -- in a new staging of a play at a Moscow theater.

The play -- staged ahead of March 4 polls where Putin is expected to win back the presidency -- takes plenty of inspiration from Internet gossip and breaks almost every remaining taboo about the Russian leader's personal life.

The play, "Berlusputin", is a Russian adaptation of a work by Italian playwright Dario Fo called L'anomalo Bicefalo. But it is updated every performance to include the latest news.

The play imagines what might happen if half of former Italian prime minister and Putin buddy Silvio Berlusconi's brain was transplanted into the Russian strongman's head after an accident.

But true to Fo's street theater philosophy, the performance in Moscow at the ground-breaking Teatr.doc house in the center of the city is very much a work in progress.

People queued in the snow to catch two consecutive performances on Friday in the black-painted cellar theater known for its hard-hitting political plays. The tiny, sweaty theater was sold-out.

"This play is probably a producer's dream. There's only two roles and crazy interest in the play," said director Varvara Faer.

The play's absurd plot imagines that Berlusconi has died in an attack and Putin, injured, has been given a transplant of half his brain.

Unexpectedly, he reveals previously unseen liberal tendencies and even "repents" in front of the parliament. But then a Botox overdose has a reverse effect.

A flurry of speculation on the Internet backed up by picture evidence has suggested Putin, 59, underwent cosmetic procedures to reverse the ageing process. However this had always been denied by aides.

Putin is played by an actor with foam muscles strapped to his chest, while an actress devoutly wraps herself in a headscarf to play his wife Lyudmila, who has got a little too close to her spiritual advisor at a monastery.

-- Putin as a grotesque dwarf --

"You kept me for 20 years on a short leash," complains Lyudmila. "You tormented me, you always tormented me."

His marriage is another subject of frenzied Internet speculation and Putin has not been seen in public with his wife for months. His spokesman has insisted this is simply because Putin is very busy.

The theater's frank airing of the rumors about Putin's private life is a bold move in Russia, where state media and even opposition-inclined newspapers and television observe a rigid silence on the issue.

The Botox overdose results in Putin morphing into Dobby the house elf from J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter books, in a joke unlikely to amuse the strongman.

A television puppet show that parodied Putin as a grotesque dwarf closed shortly after he became president in 2000. And he was reportedly offended by widespread comments on his resemblance to Dobby when the the film depiction came out back in 2003.

The audience broke into applause after a spoof of state television news coverage of Putin speaking to the parliament and Vladimir Churov, the much-disliked head of the Central Electoral Commission.

The lobotomized Putin expresses his horror at the "Party of Crooks and Thieves", an opposition term for the ruling United Russia party.

And gasps and laughter came as the actor playing Putin leered at a projection on the wall of Olympic rhythmic gymnast Alina Kabayeva twirling her ribbons, and then stroked his hand across her bottom.

A newspaper in 2008 alleged that Putin was about to divorce and marry Kabayeva, rumors that both angrily denied, but which have lingered on.

The play also satirizes claims by pro-Kremlin politicians that protests and Putin's power swap with President Dmitry Medvedev are financed by the U.S. State Department, with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton making an appearance.

In a performance days before the presidential election, Berlusconi took a back seat to topical jokes.

Faer told AFP the most recent additions to the script included Putin's campaign manager Stanislav Govorukhin calling the intelligentsia "the shit of the nation".

"We will do this play as long as Putin is in power," said the director.