Playwright Nikolai Kolyada died in Yekaterinburg at the age of 68.

The director and artistic director of the Kolyada Theater was hospitalized on February 25 due to health issues. According to local media, he spent the last days of his life in intensive care.

“This is an irreparable loss not only for the Sverdlovsk region, but for all of Russia,” the governor commented. Denis Pasler. “He dedicated his entire life to theatrical art and always remained true to himself.”

In 1980 year Nikolay Kolyada He began writing plays, and in 1989 he became a member of the USSR Writers' Union. From 1994, he taught at the Yekaterinburg Theatre Institute, creating the famous "Ural School of Drama." The playwright founded his private "Kolyada Theatre" in 2001. It became his calling card. Yekaterinburg и Sverdlovsk region.

In November 2024, the Kolyada Theatre's Moscow tour was cancelled after they refused to remove the frontman of the rock band Kurara from their performances. Oleg Yagodin. The reason was his anti-war position, which confused the employees of the “competent authorities.”

"I won't abandon my own people. And you can think of it however you want," Kolyada explained his decision. "I'd rather cancel this tour, and we'll stay home and perform our own shows, because you don't abandon your own."

In 2025, the Sverdlovsk Region Ministry of Culture refused to award the Kolyada Theater a grant for the traditional international contemporary drama festival "Kolyada Plays," citing a failure to submit reports. The festival went ahead, raising 805 rubles through crowdfunding.

UPDATE: Nikolai Kolyada escaped from the hospital to finish the final performance of "Orpheus Descending," Oleg Yagodin said today before the production's preview. "Six days ago, he was taken to intensive care, and we ran through it ourselves," Yagodin said. The theater continues to operate.

Photo: EAN