THE WHITE THEATER OF KHABAROVSK WILL BE CLOSED DUE TO THE RENT ARREARS

The White Theater of Khabarovsk, famous for its intimacy and unusual performances designed for an intellectual audience, is forced to close its doors. The restrictions, related to the spread of Coronavirus and a lack of support of the government (since the theater is private) have left holes in the budget.

The "the final nail in the coffin" of the theater, drowning in debts, was the increased appetites of the lessor, represented by the Ministry of Defense. Now the troupe and its artistic director, Andrei Trumba, are thinking about the ways to avoid being brought to trial and to reach agreements with the military because of the unexpected debt of 475,200 rubles.

According to the artistic director, the owner of the premises, where the theater rehearsals and performances took place, has raised the rental prices to 102 thousand rubles starting from January 1, 2020.

However, the main trouble of the management is that information about the increase in the amount of payment (previously, the rental price was 40 thousand) has been revealed 6 months later, along with a pre-trial claim. Since the agreement was not cancelled in January, the debt increased to almost half a million rubles in the first five months.

The lease agreement was signed 13 years ago. It provided that the owner of the building, where the theater is located, had a right to change the amount of the rent unilaterally. This format of the relationship between the lessor and the tenant was traditionally formalized as an additional agreement to the main contract and had not involved the parties into conflict for many years.

A difficult situation with the lease, however, had already arisen in the history of the "White Theater" at the end of 2011. Then the management received an additional agreement on the increase of the rental rates from 40,000 to 118,656 rubles, excluding VAT. Then, a regional private theater with an auditorium for 30 seats could have been left "on the pavement", and the 23rd season could have become the last one.

However, the representatives of the theater managed to make an agreement with the Ministry of Defense, which extended the life of the theater for 9 mor seasons.

This time, the director lost his own garage, which was sold to pay the utility bills.

Since March, the theater has ceased operations due to the threat of the spread of COVID-19, and the leadership and actors have begun to write letters to the regional officials. However, no help has been provided by them.

The theater itself was founded in Khabarovsk in 1989 on the initiative of the director Arkady Raskin and the theater troupe. According to experts, its own style and unique aura of theatrical performances has been the distinction of the chamber theater for many years.