What it means to be an artist in a totalitarian state: The brutal enemy of intelligence, research, free speech and artistic work

Performing in Central Asia’s first independent theatre, I learned about the internationally acclaimed director Mark Weil and about his tragic fate.

Ilkhom Theatre in Tashkent / Uzbekistan was founded in 1976 and had been directed since the beginning by internationally acclaimed theatre director Mark Weil.
The Soviet Union’s first independent theatre, it has been a place that has, for thirty years, breached taboos and crossed boundaries set by Uzbekistan’s repressive governments and its traditional society.

In many of his plays, Mark Weil focused on Uzbek society, raising issues and asking questions that most preferred not to talk about. Politics and political power were among the themes his work revolved around, but his troupe also devised plays on homosexuality — a massive taboo in Uzbek society.
On 6 September 2007, Mark Weil was stabbed to death outside his home in Tashkent. His murder was surrounded by mystery, and there were only a few known facts. According to two sources in Tashkent, the director was threatened shortly before his death.

In 2010, three men were convicted of murdering Weil. They said they had killed him in response to his portrayal of Muhammad in his play Imitating the Koran.