Reviews
Bodies in Pain, Protest and Resistance
October 22, 21:41
No matter what the laws of physics decree, there is untold and explosive energy in resistance. Or such is the evidence of “Burning Doors,” the Belarus Free Theater’s bruising exploration of the dynamics of resistance — the kind that occurs in the intersection of art and politics — at La MaMa.
The Greatest Sin is Cowardice
June 19, 11:26
In Hamburg, the Belarus Free Theatre is presenting the documentary theatre performance ‘Burning Doors’, straight from the underworld of Putin’s regime. It features ‘Pussy Riot’-member Maria Alechina performing her own story.
Between hope and uprising
Aleś Zahorski
April 09, 9:52
American artist ZAK Kaghado explores protest movements, wars, revolutions, the nature of power and the right to happiness.
London Stories; a shifting point
verity healey
November 13, 13:15
“I think the act of sitting and listening, whilst looking into the eyes of a stranger is something that rarely happens in life” writes David Jubb in answer to my question about the pluses and minuses of asking members of the public to narrate their personal fables to an audience of strangers. We are talking about London Stories, a Battersea Arts Centre project where story tellers, all immigrants or refugees, tell the tale of how they came to make London their home.
Russia: Belarus Free Theatre calls for the release of jailed Ukranian filmmaker Oleg Sentsov
October 15, 8:04
The Belarus Free Theatre, which campaigns for free expression in Belarus, is calling on the British government to pressurise the Russian authorities to release prisoners whose only crime is to have opposed the annexation of Crimea, an act that the British Government has declared illegal.
Burning Doors
verity healey
September 12, 17:39
Belarus Free Theatre's newest performance Burning Doors tells the stories of three dissident artists, and stars Pussy Riot's Maria Alyokhina. Verity Healey joined them in the rehearsal room to explore their incendiary creative process.
Belarus Free Theatre meets Pussy Riot: 'If you don't run in front of the train, then you're nowhere'
September 08, 9:13
Pussy Riot's Masha Alyokhina is working with Belarus Free Theatre to make UK audiences stand up for political prisoners – Jessie Thompson meets them to find out more.
Review Blue/Orange: What is sanity?
verity healey
May 23, 12:00
Jeremy Herbert’s fortress and moat implied stage are reached by the audience filing through a deserted psychiatric waiting room in the underbelly of the Young Vic’s main space. The smell of bleach catches the back of the throat.
Pushing the art of protest to new limits
April 29, 14:43
If you were going to use art as a form of protest, would you (a) drop an unannounced album on Tidal accompanied by a one-hour special on HBO, or (b) nail your genitals to a paving stone?
The Syrian, the Human and the Resisting: Creative Memory of the Syrian Revolution
Julia Farrington
March 02, 11:21
‘There is no political control without control of the archives or the memory’ – Jacques Derida (1930-2004)
Place Hacking, Belarus Free Theatre, and Coming Home
February 15, 10:47
Seeing a play by Belarus Free Theatre in their home country can get you locked up or flung out of university. It’s forced the company to form close protective relationships with their home audiences, many of whom are themselves committed to the struggle to oust dictator Alexander Lukashenko. It’s also encouraged BFT to think particularly about their audiences outside Belarus and how they communicate with them during and post shows. But what’s particularly apparent to anyone who regularly attends BFT’s plays, is the strong invisible presence of the audiences and creative teams who support the company in secret in Belarus, who while not being with global audiences in body, are certainly there in spirit. This bond between audience, actor, and company, those who are present and not present, was imaginatively highlighted by BFT’s Staging a Revolution festival held in London, a two-week celebration of the company’s tenth anniversary.
'King Lear,' via Belarus, rages and storms at Chicago Shakespeare
February 08, 17:57
If a King Lear could still be said to exist anywhere in the world, then Alexander Lukashenko, the president of the Republic of Belarus, is about as close a candidate as you could find. In office for more than two decades, the monarchical dictator of the outlying Eastern European nation holds all the effective reins of governmental power, including near-total control of spending, the ability to dissolve an uncooperative parliament and a stranglehold on the judiciary.
King Lear (Shakespeare 400 Chicago)
February 08, 13:51
Belarusian Dissidents as Nasty as They Wanna Be.
The individual hells in Escaped Alone at the Royal Court
verity healey
January 31, 12:44
This is a play that showcases Caryl Churchill’s instinct for comedy and close observation of characters whose personal turmoils and tragedies are never quite out of their lives, like dark shadows that interrupt the gentle sunlight. It also parallels the playwright’s love for ironic, genre-busting dramatic sabotage, here being in the form of an apocalyptic nightmare.
Pop Up Performance in a Dictatorship? No Problem!
January 15, 17:10
Belarus Free Theatre’s theatrical laboratory Fortinbras’ provocations of pop up contemporary art and theatre shone a bright light through the chinks of the armor of Belarus’ dictatorship this past December in a cold and rainy Minsk.
Trash Cuisine: Rare meat, naked actors, Vladislav Kovalev's child photos
December 28, 16:38
Rare meat, naked actors, Vladislav Kovalev's child photos – Belarus Free Theatre shows Belarusian version of Trash Cuisine in Minsk.
Natalia Kaliada: “Any system, anywhere, is afraid of people who think”
verity healey
November 27, 11:45
Verity Healey talks to Natalia Kaliada about Staging A Revolution.
Trash Cuisine- Belarus Free Theatre- Staging a Revolution- New River Studios
verity healey
November 26, 15:29
The body. Or, rather, our bodies.
Freedom From Torture With Belarus Free Theatre At The Young Vic
November 24, 18:09
Earlier this month Belarus Free Theatre invited Freedom from Torture to lead the post-performance audience discussion of their play Being Harold Pinter at the Young Vic Theatre. Noreen McKeever went along to watch them in action:
Belarus Free Theatre’s networks of dissent
November 22, 18:01
The repeated violations of subordinate aerial spaces by U.S. drones constitute one of today’s most striking examples. Just as sovereignty is no longer flatly territorial but instead volumetric and three-dimensional, so too are the ways to challenge or deny it.
– Grégoire Chamayou, Drone Theory
“Tonight we are live-streaming. We hope that people online could see us in Belarus, in Ukraine, in Russia and many other countries where we don’t have artistic freedoms.”
– Natalia Kaliada, Belarus Free Theatre