Index on Censorship presents…
Go East! Sun 29 Aug
Bethnal Green Working Men’s Club, E2 6NB
7pm ’til late Belarus Free Theatre * Comedy: Miriam Elia, The Fix * DJs from Panik.com
A day and night of cabaret, comedy and DJs, with a performance from the sensational underground Belarus Free Theatre!
Join Index on Censorship, the UK’s leading freedom of expression organisation, and the Belarus Free Theatre at the Bethnal Green Working Men’s Club, for a packed night of cabaret, comedy from Sony award short listed Miriam Elia and The Fix – and all-night mischief. Come and see a mischievous mix of Belarusian funk DJs, live music, cabaret and comedians – all for the exceptionally brave people who dare to speak up, and challenge Belarus’s dictator Lukashenko.
The multi-award winning Belarus Free Theatre, banned in their native Belarus, is renowned for staging underground and uncensored performances that draw attention to the continuing problems faced by Belarusians in “Europe’s last dictatorship”. Their recent performances, including at the Soho Theatre, London and the Under the Radar Festival, New York, have won widespread acclaim. On July 13 the troop performed a rendition of ‘Numbers’ in an event hosted by Index on Censorship and presented by Tom Stoppard at the Free Word Centre in London.
Confirmed DJs: Panik, Mr. Chips, DJ Perry Stroika and the Tblisi Sound Machine & DJ Gaz Nost.
A recording of a performance of “Numbers”, directed by Vladimir Shcherban, performed in secret by the Belarus Free Theatre, an outlaw theatre group in Europe’s last dictatorship.
Now watch
Video: Natalia Koliada on surviving in Europe’s last dictatorship
Video: Sir Tom Stoppard presents… Belarus Free Theatre
On Tuesday, 13 July, Index on Censorship hosted a very special event at the Free Word Centre in London. Index played host to the Belarus Free Theatre, an outlaw company that defies Europe’s last dictatorship to produce challenging, contemporary drama
Award-winning playwright Sir Tom Stoppard, who has long associations with both Index on Censorship and the Belarus Free Theatre, introduced the evening:
Now watch
Video: Natalia Koliada on surviving in Europe’s last dictatorship
Banned in their native Belarus and renowned for staging uncensored performances underground, Belarus Free Theatre is a rare voice of dissent in Europe’s last dictatorship. Co-founder Natalia Koliada explains what life is like for her theatre group
The easiest way for me to describe the situation in Belarus is to ask you to imagine… Just imagine, you sit in the evening, you talk to your friend….the next day that friend is kidnapped and killed. It was my husband and his friend Dmitry Zavadsky. They sat and discussed their lives, their wives and their children but the next day he was dead
Banned in their native Belarus and renowned for staging uncensored performances underground, Belarus Free Theatre is a rare voice of dissent in Europe’s last dictatorship.
On Tuesday 13 July, Sir Tom Stoppard will introduce Natalia Koliada, and Nikolai Khalezin – directors of Belarus Free Theatre – and leading opposition figure Charter 97’s Andrei Sannikov.
The theatre company’s most recent London performances won widespread acclaim, but their fight for freedom and democracy continues as the situation worsens in Belarus. On 1 July, President Lukashenko brought in restrictive new internet laws intended to criminalise human rights and political activists who use the internet to organise opposition to the regime.
At the event, Index on Censorship will launch a campaign to draw attention to the state of free expression in Belarus. During the event we will ask you to give a 60-second message of support to the people of Belarus, which will be filmed and placed online.
7pm – 9pm, Free Word Centre, 60 Farringdon Road, London, EC1R 3GA
RSVP: bookings[AT]freewordonline.com 0207 324 2570
Reviews for the Belarus Free Theatre company:
“This dazzling production… shows a spiritual resilience that makes dictatorship look even more inflexible and absurd.” The Guardian *****
“As gripping and accomplished a piece of theatre as you’ll find in London this year… this is world class theatre, built on the raw guts of experience” The Telegraph *****
Britain’s theatre community comes out against oppression and censorship in the “last dictatorship of Europe”. Join the protest in London
Sir Tom Stoppard and actor/director Samuel West are leading a protest of high-profile theatre practitioners outside the Belarussian Embassy at 6 Kensington Court, London, W8 5DL on Thursday 1st July at 11.30am.
They will present an open letter to President Alexander Lukashenko of Belarus calling for greater democratic freedom and for an end to censorship of the internet. Other signatories include Mark Ravenhill, Howard Brenton, Alan Rickman, Laura Wade, Caryl Churchill,Henry Goodman, Henry Porter, Simon McBurney, Simon Stephens and Lyndsey Turner.
On Thursday 1st July a new presidential decree on the internet comes into force. It gives the authorities greater powers to monitor usage and will enable the government to restrict or block access to websites that offer independent and alternative sources of information. It has been described as “a step in the wrong direction” by the European Union. The decree is a clear attempt to curb freedom of speech and the right to self-expression.
Samuel West will perform an extract of Generation Jeans, a play from the multi-award winning Belarus Free Theatre. “Generation Jeans charts one man’s journey as an activist. It captures all of the courage, the humour and the foolhardy determination that you need to resist a totalitarian regime, which makes it perfect for our protest today,” says director Clare Lizzimore, co-organiser of the protest.
Playwright and co-organiser of the protest, Alexandra Wood says, “the internet is a vital tool in communication and should be available to all. Lukashenko’s law, imposing censorship on the internet, particularly affects those in Belarus who oppose his regime, who want to offer the Belarusian people an alternative, which is of course, his intention.”
Thursday’s protest is in support of the Belarus Free Theatre and is in conjunction with the Global Artistic Campaign in Solidarity with Belarus, founded by playwright Sir Tom Stoppard.
Come down and join Index on Censorship staffers at the event.
Demonstration details:
What: Protesters with placards demonstrating outside embassy and handing in an open letter to President Alexander Lukashenko; Samuel West will perform an extract of Generation Jeans, a play from the multi-award winning Belarus Free Theatre.
When: Thursday 1st July at 11.30am.
Where: Outside the Belarussian Embassy at 6 Kensington Court, London, W8 5DL
We are delighted that Belarus Free Theatre (BFT) nominated by Index for the ArtVenture Freedom to Create prize wre runners up in the main prize category of the inaugural awards. Tom Stoppard, a long-time supporter of the theatre company, handed them the cheque for $15,000 to be shared with Charter 97 in recognition of their tenacious and deeply committed work to oppose the last dictatorship in Europe. The winner of the prize was Cont Mhlanga whose work, like BFT’s brings with it great personal danger, but sees the prize as providing a degree of protection against the extremes of censorship, as his works gains in international profile.
Hopefully this is the case, though popularity and recognition both at home and abroad has not protected Zarganar who won the artist in prison award, from being handed the harshest sentences only days after being given 45 years sentence by the Burmese Government, a term that has since been increased to 59 years. Index on Censorship is part of a working party including Equity, International Pen, A19 and ArtVenture, looking at how to support the artist and his family in the face of such an extreme sentence. A group of young rappers from the favellas of Recife, purported to be the most violent city in Brazil, called City of Rhyme won the youth category. The awards have, as anticipated, brought together the most exciting and dynamic range of artists working to support freedom of expression around the world and ArtVenture is already setting its sights on next years prize.
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