Renowned theater director Yuri Butusov has passed away at 63, as announced by actor Alexander Molochnikov and actress Varvara Shmykova.
News outlet Meduza reports the director drowned while on a family trip to Bulgaria. This information was corroborated by Kirill Krok, director of Moscow's Vakhtangov Theater, in a statement to RBC.
Butusov served as artistic director of St. Petersburg's Lensovet Theater from 2011 and took on the role of chief director at Moscow's Vakhtangov Theater in 2018. He departed Russia in 2022, publicly opposing the war in Ukraine.
His recent directorial works included a Vilnius production of Tom Stoppard's "Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead" and "Gogol. Portrait" staged in Riga.