Authorities in Russia's easternmost region of Kamchatka dismissed as "nonsense" reports that a recent theatrical performance based on Cinderella had been censored.
According to the region's ex-governor, officials tried to ban the satirical adaptation of the popular children's story for poking fun at regional and federal officials.
The Kamchatka government allegedly criticized a scene in which the king winds the clocks back by one hour to keep Cinderella at the ball for being a reference to an unpopular decision to set local time one hour closer to Moscow.
"The scene where the king sets the clock one hour back... received an especially tumultuous ovation," the region's ex-governor Mikhail Mashkovtsev wrote in his blog. "It also sent a 'lady in power' into hysterics. She demanded that the performance be cancelled."
"She reported to the governor, and he ordered that the performance be banned for inciting hatred against the federal authorities," he went on.
Theater sources confirmed that the incident took place, but denied it entailed any consequences.
"I know that local media reported about alleged attempts to ban our show, but nothing like that happened. I have no idea of where all those rumors came from," a manager of the Kamchatka Theatre of Drama and Comedy told RIA Novosti.
The theater's stage director told the Moskovsky Komsomolets newspaper that the actors in the play faced "neither censorship nor pressure" from the local authorities.
"Yes, a bit of controversy took place, but it all was settled down that same evening... The authorities understood that it was just a joke," Vyacheslav Taratynov said. "Not a single change was introduced to the plot and the last performance, on January 13th, will be staged with the same jokes."
More than 3,000 people gathered in the city of Petropavlovsk-Kamchatsky on December 11 to protest the time zone alteration, complaining that it would cause the whole region to plunge into darkness at around 3:00 p.m. in winter.
VLADIVOSTOK, January 12 (RIA Novosti)
