Belarus Free Theater team have signed and translated into Russian hundreds of postcards from Londoners in support of jailed Ukrainian film director Oleg Sentsov.
Belarus Free Theater has finished the first part of the British tour with their new play Burning Doors. Thirty premiere shows, all of which were sold out, six five-star reviews from theater critics, acclamations in leading media outlets and a powerful stream of compliments and emotions from the audience expressed on Twitter and Facebook. The actors, directors and the administrative crew have given the project all they had, but sometimes they would come to rehearsals a few hours earlier to do something that goes well beyond art as we know it.
During weeks after the show’s premiere took place in late August the Free Theater teams have been asking people to sign postcards in support of Oleg Sentsov — one of the characters in their new play. Oleg Sentsov is a Ukrainian film director and screenwriter, who was kidnapped by Russian law enforcers in Crimea and later sentenced to 20 years in prison on fabricated terrorism charges. Together with the persecution stories of Pussy Riot’s Maria Alyokhina and performance artist Petr Pavlensky Oleg’s case was one of the storylines for the Burning Doors shows. While the theater was touring Britain, hundreds of people have signed postcards to show support for Sentsov. The correspondence rules in Russian prisons require that any text written in a foreign language be accompanied by a translation into Russian. For this reason the Free Theater staff would allocated a few hours before shows and rehearsals to translate the messages from the audience with their expression of support and solidarity to be later passed on to the imprisoned film director.
The actors and staff asked people to write to Oleg as if they were writing to a good friend, who had a tragic misfortune happen to them. And so they did. The postcards to the Ukrainian film director from complete strangers are moving messages about life’s simple pleasures and personal experiences. These is news about Nick Cave’s new album, the impressive achievements of athletes at the Olympics in Rio, the events of the London Fashion Week, events from work or studies, words of support, encouragement and solidarity. Many people, who have learnt Sentsov’s story for the first time from the play, indicate that they will now have him in their thoughts. For some the show and the tragic stories of its characters were a nudge towards rethinking the value of their own life. “Today I've had a normal day, and I've not accepted it as my due,” one viewer writes to the Ukrainian prisoner. “I hope very much that you will soon have a normal day too.”
When you have a spare minute, go ahead and send a letter or a postcard to Oleg Sentsov and other prisoners of the Kremlin, who still remain behind bars. You’ll find all the necessary information and the address following the link.
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