Theater director in Uzbekistan assassinated

Death of a radical as director is stabbed


Controversial theatre founder had challenged repression in Uzbekistan

David Smith
The Observer

Mystery yesterday surrounded the stabbing of Mark Weil, a theatre director praised for challenging political repression in Uzbekistan, who was murdered on the eve of the opening of a new production.

Among those horrified by the killing was novelist DBC Pierre, winner of the Booker Prize in 2003 with Vernon God Little, who had been due to collaborate with Weil on a theatre project in Uzbekistan this year.

'The shock is compounded because it's a real robbery of spirit,' he said. 'This was an enormous spirit of a man. He was very gentle and phenomenally well read. He could quote from any of the great works of Russian literature.'

Weil, who founded the Ilkhom theatre company more than 30 years ago, was attacked in front of his block of flats in the capital, Tashkent, his native city, late last Thursday night. Oksana Khrupun, a spokeswoman for Ilkhom, said he died on the operating table at a local hospital. The 55-year-old's last words were: 'I'm opening the season tomorrow, whatever happens.' On Friday the actors went ahead with the first night of The Oresteia by Aeschylus.

Weil was taken to the hospital by neighbours, who described seeing two young men in baseball caps waiting in front of his building. He was not robbed, and he said before the operation that he did not know his assailants, according to actors at the theatre.

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