FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Thursday 2 April 2020
BELARUS FREE THEATRE OPENS UP ITS DIGITAL ARCHIVE TO SHARE 24 THEATRICAL PRODUCTIONS FROM THE PAST 15 YEARS
WILL ATTENBOROUGH, STEPHEN FRY, ANDREI KHLYVNIUK, DAVID LAN, JULIET STEVENSON & SAM WEST JOIN NEW FAIRY-TALE-INSPIRED CAMPAIGN #LOVEOVERVIRUS
2020 marks the 15th anniversary of Belarus Free Theatre (BFT), the foremost refugee-led theatre company in the UK and the only theatre in Europe banned by its government on political grounds.
Ahead of the announcement of the full programme of BFT’s 15th anniversary celebrations, and in response to the coronavirus pandemic, the company will open up its digital archive to make 24 acclaimed stage productions free to watch online, alongside the launch of a new fairy-tale-inspired campaign: #LoveOverVirus
15 YEARS OF THEATRICAL HIGHLIGHTS FREE TO WATCH ONLINE
Belarus Free Theatre began 15 years ago this week – on 30 March 2005 – in Minsk under Europe's last surviving dictatorship. Since 2011, the company has been based between Minsk and London where its co-founding Artistic Directors, Natalia Kaliada and Nicolai Khalezin, are political refugees in the UK. New productions are created and rehearsed over Skype before premiering in continually changing underground locations in and around Minsk.
Over the past decade, BFT has - through necessity - pioneered creating award-winning theatre at distance and will now share a raft of its theatrical highlights with audiences online at a time when more than a third of the world’s population is adapting to daily life under lockdown.
Beginning this Saturday (4 April), and continuing each weekend for the next three months, 24 productions will be made available to watch online on BFT’s YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/c/BelarusFreeTheatre
Each production listed below will air on the date indicated at 8pm GMT and will be available to watch for the following 24 hours.
The full programme is:
Date Production (year of world premiere) Performed in: Subtitled in: Sat 4 April 4.48 Psychosis (2005) Russian English Sun 5 April Generation Jeans (2006) Russian English Sat 11 April Zone of Silence (2008) Russian English Sun 12 April Discover Love (2008) Russian English Sat 18 April New York’79 (2010) Russian English
Sun 19 April Minsk’11. A Reply to Kathy Acker (2010) Russian English Sat 25 April Nearest and Dearest (2012) Russian Russian Sun 26 April Merry Christmas, Ms Meadows (2013) Russian English Sat 2 May King Lear (2012) Belarusian English Sun 3 May Red Forest (2014) English Russian Sat 9 May Ivanov Family's New Year Tree (2012) Russian Russian Sun 10 May Time of Women (2015) Russian English Sat 16 May Price of Money (2014) English Russian Sun 17 May Trash Cuisine (2015) English Russian Sat 23 May Tomorrow I Was Always a Lion (2016) English Russian Sun 24 May Onyx (2016) Russian English Sat 30 May House №5 (2017) Russian / Belarusian English Sun 31 May Burning Doors (2016) Russian English Sat 6 June A Part of the Rain (2019) Russian Russian Sun 7 June Well-being (2019) Russian Russian Sat 13 June Kōan (2018) N/A – dance work / no dialogue DerMagenFinDelMöön. Stories by Kharms English Sun 14 June Russian (2018) Sat 20 June Trustees (2018) English Russian Sun 21 June Reykjavík’74 (2020) Belarusian Polish
#LoveOverVirus CAMPAIGN
Belarus Free Theatre has always extended its reach far beyond theatre walls and 2020 is no exception. Alongside exploding taboos on the world stage BFT has pioneered an award-winning global model of artivism that unites artistic, geopolitical, environmental and human rights concerns.
Fairy-tales take centre-stage in the latest campaign also launching this week on BFT’s YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/c/BelarusFreeTheatre
Each evening at 6pm GMT throughout the months of April and May, members of BFT’s permanent ensemble will be joined by some of the company’s famous friends – including Will Attenborough, Stephen Fry, Boombox frontman Andrei Khlyvniuk, David Lan, Juliet Stevenson and Sam West – to read extracts of their favourite fairy-tales and short stories. Highlights from the line-up include:
Author Date Title Performed by Belarusian folk legends 31 March performed in Belarusian by professor Andrej Kaliada
Dmitry Mamin-Sibiryak 1 April A Grey Neck performed in Russian by Sergey Kvachonok Japanese folk tale 2 April Pear, up! Pear, down! performed in Russian by Andrey Urazov
Sergey Mikhalkov 3 April Feast of Disobedience performed in Russian by Yulia Shevchuk Hans Christian Andersen 4 April The Snow Queen performed in Russian by Roman Shytsko Rumpelstiltskin from The Blue Fairy Book 5 April performed in English by Samuel West Belarusian folk tale 6 April Oh And The Golden Snuffbox performed in Belarusian by Alaksiej Saprykin Viktor Dragunski 7 April A Girl on The Ball performed in Russian by Nastasya Korablina Hans Christian Andersen 8 April Thumbelina performed in Belarussian by Anastasiya Dubatouka Dmitry Mamin-Sibiryak 9 April A Tale of Milk, Oatmeal and Gray Cat Murka performed in Russian by Stanislava Shablinskaya Oscar Wilde 15 April The Selfish Giant performed in English by Stephen Fry
25 April Will Attenborough – reading to be announced on @BFreeTheatre
5 May Juliet Stevenson – reading to be announced on @BFreeTheatre
15 May David Lan – reading to be announced on @BFreeTheatre
For further details on #LoveOverVirus follow @BFreeTheatre
#LoveOverVirus nods towards BFT’s continuing collaboration with the celebrated Belarusian writer, Alhierd Bacharevic, which began this year with Dogs of Europe. This winter, BFT will premiere The Most Recent Book by Mr. A underground in Minsk – marking the first time the company has tackled a fairy-tale. Based on Bacharevic’s latest novel, the production will scale the heights of the magical and absurd in a blazingly contemporary theatrical fairy-tale for grown-ups.
Belarus Free Theatre’s co-founding Artistic Director, Natalia Kaliada, said: “As the world is united in the greatest fight for survival many of us have ever known, over in Minsk – just a three-hour flight away from London - Alexander Lukashenko continues to insist that the coronavirus does not exist, claiming that “the world has gone mad”. The population of Belarus – 9.5 million people – already living under dictatorship for more than 25 years, now endure the double threat of deadly misinformation handed out by an authoritarian leader.
Nicolai and I fled Belarus a decade ago and have been political refugees in the UK ever since. We have both been imprisoned for our political work, so know first-hand how important it is to bring dreams, imagination and hope to the fore even in the darkest of times. Stories allow us to dream, to freely explore the outer reaches of our imaginations. At a time of unprecedented insecurity and fear we wanted to create an online space to celebrate and share these enduring stories together.
Bringing together old friends and new in our #LoveOverVirus campaign we hope to offer thought- provoking diversion in a celebration of unity and community, and by opening up our digital archive we hope audiences can revisit some of their favourites shows from across the past 15 years and discover productions that have never been seen before in the UK.
Over the coming weeks and months we will launch a series of online masterclasses to reveal how Belarus Free Theatre has created theatre in the most challenging and restrictive of conditions. It is our hope that by sharing what we’ve learnt we can inspire more people to use their creativity and imagination to look towards a more peaceful and hopeful future”.
ENDS
Notes to Editors’
Press contact: Jennifer Reynolds / [email protected] / +44 7736 84 22 37
On Belarus Free Theatre (BFT) BFT is the foremost refugee-led theatre company in the UK and the only theatre in Europe banned by its government on political grounds - was founded in 2005 in Minsk under Europe's last surviving dictatorship. Described by The New York Times as, “one of the bravest and most inspired underground troupes on the planet”, BFT has brought audiences some of the world's most provocative and breathtakingly physical theatre - 46 brand new productions performed in more than 40 countries over the past 15 years. Alongside exploding taboos on the world stage BFT has pioneered an award-winning global model of artivism that unites artistic, geopolitical, environmental and human rights concerns.
Since 2011, BFT has been based between Minsk and London where its founding Artistic Directors, Natalia Kaliada and Nicolai Khalezin, are political refugees in the UK. BFT’s existence is illegal in a country where only state-sanctioned theatre is permitted, and yet its 12-strong permanent ensemble based in Minsk campaign, educate and perform every single day of the year. New theatrical productions are created and rehearsed over Skype and performed in constantly changing underground locations in and around Minsk. Actors and audiences are under the constant watch of the authorities; performances have been raided by the KGB and audience members arrested. In spite of this, BFT is a hot ticket – a 50-seat venue typically sells out in less than 30 minutes.
Awards for BFT include: the 2007 Human Rights Prize of the French Republic, awarded to a cultural institution for the first time in the history of the Prize for the play Discover Love and for BFT’s outstanding track-record of creating brave, blazingly imaginative and important theatre in exceptionally difficult circumstances; a Special Mention Award at the XII Edition of the Europe Theatre Prize in 2007, proposed by Vaclav Havel, Harold Pinter and Tom Stoppard, for BFT’s opposition to the oppression of the Belarusian government and for the stage productions, Generation Jeans, Being Harold Pinter and Zone of Silence; in 2008, BFT was awarded Second Prize at the inaugural Freedom to Create Prize which recognised the Company as a Global Artistic Ambassador for Human Rights; and in 2011, BFT received the Atlantic Council Award for the people of Belarus. Also in 2011, BFT was nominated for the Unique Theatrical Experience Drama Desk Award for Being Harold Pinter and received the prestigious off-Broadway OBIE Award for Being Harold Pinter, Discover Love and Zone of Silence. More recently, BFT received The Offies’ Best Ensemble Award in 2017 for Burning Doors and the 2018 Vaclav Havel Prize for Creative Dissent.
BFT enjoys the support and solidarity of fellow artists including Sir Tom Stoppard, David Lan, Jude Law, Stephen Fry, Jeremy Irons, Emma Thompson, Alan Rickman, Ai Wei Wei, Vivienne
Westwood, Kim Cattrall, Ian McKellen and Samuel West. BFT is an Associate Company at London’s Young Vic and Melbourne’s Malthouse Theatre, and has a long-standing partnership with both the Public Theater and LaMaMa in New York.