The playwright Anna Yablonskaya died in the bomb attack on Domodedovo today.
She was travelling to Moscow from her home town Odessa to receive a prize
for her play The Pagans.
Anna Yablonskaya was one of the leading playwrights of her generation. Born
in 1981 in Odessa she has enjoyed acclaim and recognition as one of the new
voices of Russian drama. Her plays have been performed in theatres across
Russia and she has been nominated for a number of writing prizes, including
DEBYUT (2004) and Evrasiya (2006). More recently she has participated in
workshops and an international residency at the Royal Court Theatre. A
public reading of her play The Pagans is due to take place at the Royal
Court on 7 April.
The theatre critic Pavel Rudnev described her as special name in new writing
and one of the most important representatives of women's writing in theatre.
Anna's work was particularly appreciated in Russia. She wrote in Russian,
although she was a Ukrainian, and she had her first successes in Moscow, as
a member of the circle of playwrights and directors who surround the
teatr.doc theatre. Her most recent play The Pagans was widely considered to
be her best, and her award, from Isskustvo Kino magazine was for the
screenplay of The Pagans.
She was a brilliant and compassionate writer. A fellow writer described her
characters as 'absurd, clumsy - like Chaplin's heroes. Pity, laughter,
tenderness'
She leaves behind a husband and a three year old daughter. Her death is a
terrible tragedy for her family, friends, and for the Russian and
international writing community.
