Belarus free theatre being harold pinter biography
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Belarus Free Theatre fuses politics, art in ‘Being Harold Pinter’
Reporting from Chicago — — Most actors visiting Chicago end the brief biographies in theater programs with cute shout-outs to mentors or loved ones. Not the seven performers from the Belarus Free Theatre, who usually ply their trade in Minsk in the Republic of Belarus, the former Soviet republic famously called “the last remaining true dictatorship in the heart of Europe” by former U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.
Actor Aleh Sidorchyk’s program note concludes with “He has been arrested for his professional activities.” The blurb for Dzianis Tarasenka says, “He has been assaulted during peaceful political action.” Both “he has been put on trial” and “he was assaulted next to his house” appear by the name of Nikolai Khalezin, both an actor and co-founder of the Belarus Free Theatre.
According to the British group Index on Censorship and other international reports, government forces have routin
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Staging a Revolution: Belarus Free Theatre in London
Belarus Free Theatre work both underground in Minsk, where they are banned, and in the UK, where the leaders of the company live as political refugees.
To celebrate their 10th anniversary, they presented Staging a Revolution, a two-week festival of performances and discussions in London featuring some of their most acclaimed original productions along with the world premiere of their brand new work, Time of Women.
The festival pioneered a unique model of performance-driven campaigning to tackle social and political taboos, from mental health and tortyr to sex and inequality.
Opening on 18 October with the I’m with the Banned solidarity concert at Koko, which was commissioned by The Space and streamed live on BBC Arts, it continued from November at secret locations around London. For the final part of the festival, from November, the company returned to their UK 'home' at the Young Vic theatre.
Following each pe
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Viktoriya Biran, Pavel Garadnitsky, Aliaksei Naranovich, Yana Rusakevich, Yulia Shauchuk, Aleh Sidorchuk, Dzenis Tarasenka, Maryna Yurevich, and Siarhei Kvachonak in Belarus Free Theatre's "Minsk, A Reply to Kathy Acker." (Photo by Elliott Franks)
LONDON: They performed in a warehouse, an old prison, a railway tunnel, and a parking lot, among other unexpected locations. Everywhere you turned in November, it seemed, London was alive with the spirit of the bravest theatre company in the world.
Against all conceivable odds, the tiny but mighty Belarus Free Theatre celebrated their 10th anniversary with a two-week festival of their unique works. Appropriately titled “Staging a Revolution,” the series sought to simulate for London audiences the experience of seeing theatre in their repressive homeland, where they must perform in remote venues away from the authorities’ scrutiny.
If you made a reservation to attend one of the 10 productions staged all over London, the location was ke