Excerpts from the show were aired as part of ETV's New Year's Eve broadcast lineup, resulting even in calls for the entire national broadcaster to be shut down, Berk Vaher writes in his cultural commentary.

But what was actually aired? I myself rarely watch TV, and this New Year's Eve I only viewed the president's end-of-year address – so I had hoped that the Identiteedikabaree "Drag Show"  cabaret performance, which had already received much positive feedback from live audiences who had been to the theater, had been broadcast in full.

Not at all, however. It turned out that only minute-long clips from the stage show were shown, in joint coverage of the Estonia Theater New Year's Eve ball, interspersed with cast and production interviews, over the course of the three-quarters of an hour-long segment.

When set beside photo galleries published on the websites of the newspapers, what appeared on screen appeared quite modest – young actors expanding their repertoires mainly; if there was anything to be criticized, it was that there was too much lip-syncing instead of singing live. Again, this impression was based only on the very brief snippets shown.

I haven't seen the entire performance, and neither indeed have the panic-mongers. Is condemning an entire performance, based on these fragments, any more valid than those anonymous online commenters who don't bother to go beyond a paywall, and base their rants solely on the headlines?

The main outrage relates to a number in which, allegedly, motherhood was mocked and in which some doll babies were cast around. Some people, referencing the tragedy in Suure-Lähtru, have called this act brutal and tasteless (and yet, a certain calculated tastelessness and boundary-pushing has always been characteristic of cabaret qua genre).

Yet, as a metaphor, the baby-throwing does raise a question – doesn't the fertility propaganda, demanding a rapid rise in the nation's birth rate, also "throw" children into a society riddled with insecurity and neglect, in which extremists pour scorn on the issue of domestic violence and of women's shelters, deride youth mental health issues, and dismiss identity struggles out of hand?

The most astonishing thing surrounding the entire "Drag Show" furor is how some extremists in all sincerity conflate the "decadent Western wokeism" with the threat from Russia. When I quizzed some people how many killings, rapes and mutilations "wokeism" has to its name compared with the Russian army, no answer was forthcoming.

And there cannot be an answer because there's no comparison.

Not everything put on the stage or aired on TV has to be amenable to all, naturally. Everyone has the right to be outraged by what they see and to share that indignation. The question is one of proportion: Demanding censorship and close-downs while beating fists speaks of a yearning for a totalitarian society.

By fueling anger against the theater and the national broadcaster, and effectively against Estonia, as a part of Europe and the Western world, many self-proclaimed nationalists are, knowingly or unknowingly, advancing the interests of our enemies.

That – and not theatrical provocations – should truly concern us and make us feel threatened.

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Opera singer Reigo Tamm welcomed ETV cameras at the Estonian National Opera's New Year's Eve ball, joined by actor Andrus Vaarik for "Pidu Draamas ja Estonias," a backstage documentary tour of "Drag Show," (see also gallery below) viewable here.

The excerpts feature the "dolls" number set to patriotic hymn "Ilus on maa," and a rendition of "Hey Big Spender."

Directed by Jüri Nael, "Drag Show vol 4" is a collaboration between the Estonian Academy of Music and Theatre, the Estonian Drama Theatre, the Estonian Academy of Arts, and the Grimm School. The show sold out within minutes of ticket sales and ended Monday.

Riigikogu MP Varro Vooglaid (EKRE) condemned such events as "perversions" financed by taxpayer money and aired on national channels, arguing they contradict the 2007 ERR legislation. He contacted the broadcaster's supervisory board ahead of the New Year's Eve broadcast.

In response, head of entertainment Karmel Killand wrote that ERR does not control what theaters perform on New

Year's Eve and trusts the drama theater's choices as an esteemed cultural institution.

Top cellist and socialite Silvia Ilves hit out at the show itself, though not the presentation of it as brought to the public by the Estonian National Opera (Rahvussooper).

"It is clear that these [two] houses had very different values," Ilves noted on her own social media account, referring to the Estonia Theater, home of the national opera and the concert hall which hosted the New Year's ball, and the Estonian Drama Theater right next door – which put on "Drag Show" during its stage run.

ETV has also faced accusations of ideological bias, though no clear explanation has been provided.

Former actress Malle Pärn called "Drag Show" "humiliating and offensive" to women.

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