Valentin Pluchek, 93; Led Moscow Theater of Satire for 50 Years

Valentin Pluchek, 93, director of the often-daring Moscow Theater of Satire for half a century, died Saturday of natural causes at his home in Moscow.

Pluchek began his theater career working with Vsevolod Meyerhold, the relentlessly experimental director who was arrested and shot in 1940, and then with playwright Alexei Arbuzov. Pluchek interrupted his career to serve in the navy during World War II.

He joined the Satire in 1950 and became its chief director in 1957. Under his tutelage, the Satire became one of the most popular theaters in a city where the stage attracts intense interest.

The Satire was known for its strong, cohesive troupe and for bringing fresh winds of thought during stodgy and fearful times.

Among Pluchek’s best-known productions were Nikolai Gogol’s “Inspector General,” Alexander Griboyedov’s “Woe from Wit,” and two plays that were quickly banned by Soviet authorities: “Terkin in a Better World” by Alexander Tvardovsky and Nazym Khikmet’s “Did Ivan Ivanovich Really Exist?” The theater also produced “Flight” by Mikhail Bulgakov, whose works had infuriated Soviet censors for decades.