Home / What's on/ Being Harold Pinter

Being Harold Pinter

7th November 2006

Being Harold Pinter interweaves extracts of the Nobel Prize-winning playwright’s lifetime of writings with testimonies from Belarusian political prisoners in a blazingly original theatrical staging.

“When we look at ourselves in a mirror, it seems that the image which appears in front of us is true. But it is enough to move just an inch to the side and the image will change. Actually we are looking at an endless line of images. But sometimes an artist must break the mirror, and from behind this mirror there is truth looking straight at us”.

Blurring the line between art and reality, Being Harold Pinter traces the relationship between power and violence in Pinter’s words – drawn from five plays as well as his Nobel speech – to deliver a poignant commentary on institutionalised brutality, freedom and human dignity. First performed in Leeds (UK) in 2007, it has since become one of BFT’s most publicly and critically acclaimed works.

Watch a clip of Being Harold Pinter here:https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p03bcpyk

“It’s an extraordinary event that not only illustrates Pinter’s career-long denunciation of political terror, but proves that poor theatre can often deliver the richest dramatic experience”

The Guardian, 16 April 2007

GALLERY

Dynamic image of a man sitting on a chair and another man standing

A person with a eye patch looking closely at a glass of water

A performer trying to wear an outrageously small shoe

A performer pointing at another performer with a masked covering his eyes and his mouth

A naked man arched back, shouting in pain while another performer holds a ball of cotton

A performer with an eye patch points at someone with his walking stick

A woman holding a glass of water upside down, a man stands next to her

A naked man lying down arched back, looking into the camera

Home / What's on/ Generation Jeans

Generation Jeans

17th March 2006

Generation Jeans is an autobiographical monologue for two – an actor and a DJ – about rock music and resistance, written and performed by BFT’s co-founding Artistic Director Nicolai Khalezin with music by DJ Laurel. When Belarus was part of the Soviet Union its people were banned from wearing jeans and listening to rock music. The buying or selling of either one could result in arrest at the hands of the KGB. Detained during a demonstration in 2004, Khalezin offers a candid account of the degradations of incarceration, the blossoming of young love and how denim became a symbol of freedom under dictatorship.

Watch a clip of Generation Jeans here: https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p038x4v1

“You go to the theatre to hear a story; you end up having met a man who, in his mixture of self-mockery and seriousness, shows a spiritual resilience that makes dictatorship look even more inflexible and absurd”

The Guardian, 18 February 2008

GALLERY

A performer is sitting down on a chair with sunglasses on

Close up to the performer who has his sunglasses on his head and fake eyeballs on his eyes.

Performer on stage wearing a commander hat

Performer on stage with sunglasses on and swaying flags of Britain and USA.

Close up to the performer on stage with sunglasses on holding the flags of USA and Britain on his shoulders

Side shot of the performer on stage holding a match on fire. Next to him lies a British flag

Performer holding a lighted up match is crying

Close up to the performer who is looking closely into the lit up match

Performer is standing next to the bamboo grid wall

Home / What's on/ Zone of Silence

Zone of Silence

7th April 2008

Zone of Silence is a modern Belarusian epic in three parts offering a panoramic view of everyday life under dictatorship. Inspired by a popular blog of the same name, Childhood Legends sees BFT’s permanent ensemble of actors share stories from their earliest years, each one a fragment of memory offering a unique insight into life lived under the shadow of authoritarianism. Diverse is a vibrant collective portrait of extraordinary Belarusians on the margins of society, from the self-proclaimed “Best Dancer in the Universe” to an armless guitar-playing former mafia member. The trilogy closes with Numbers, a forbidding cascade of statistics about the devastating dearth of freedoms and opportunities in Belarus today.

“an electrifying theatrical experience, a unique combination of verbatim and vivid physical theatre, with a razor-sharp absurdist tone”

American Theatre Magazine, 1 December 2015

GALLERY

Home / What's on/ Discover Love

Discover Love

29th - 29th September 2022

Discover Love is a stirringly original drama, researched over nine years, and based on the true story of Irina Krasovskaya and her husband Anatoly, a businessman who supported the Belarus opposition movement. One fateful evening in 1999, Anatoly called to say that he would be coming home late. Irina never saw her husband again. His car was later discovered, but his body has never been found; he simply “disappeared”.

Discover Love traces Irina’s reaction to the news of her husband’s murder: the shock, the realisation, and most powerfully, the loss of a love that continued to blossom.

More info about the show – here!

Buy tickets

Watch a clip of Discover Love here:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p038x587

“The powerful dialogue, delivered with unerring directness by actors who have evolved together with the company over the past decade and a half, accomplishes far more than any amount of expensive stagecraft could ever achieve”

The New York Times, 16 April 2020

GALLERY

A black and white rehearsal image of two performers talking to each other

A man is smelling orange while a woman looks at him

A man is lying down in pain while a woman sits behind him looking elsewhere

A man is falling on the ground while a woman is sitting behind looking in the abyss

A man is lying on hubcaps lined up in a cross

A man lying on hubcaps and another man is walking around him with a whip

A close up of a man looking in the abyss while a woman is sitting behind him

Home / What's on/ Eurepica. Challenge.

Eurepica. Challenge.

28th February 2009

Welcoming aboard Eurepica Airlines! Join us for an unsettling tour of a continent you thought you knew. Eurepica. Challenge. unites 12 playlets penned by writers from across Europe and the US in a dramatic exploration on the themes of tyranny and brutality.

High Words from BFT’s co-founding Artistic Director Nicolai Khalezin dramatises a meeting between an interrogator and a dissident student – represented by a watermelon – in an unforgettably visceral monologue.

“Vladimir Shcherban’s fine staging deftly masters the contrasts between the plays, and the shifts in tone within them, using shiny new luggage as the only props and a giant screen from which huge faces, sometimes only the mouths, smile on us or threaten”

The Times, 22 July 2011

Gallery

A shirtless performer is grunting. It seems that he has crushed something with both his fists and mouth.

Six performers in a uniform are standing in a v formation. Each of them are holding an open bag of crisps upside down, letting all the crisps fall on the floor. In the middle lies a trash can

A performer covered in white pain is dragging two other performers, grabbing them by their hair.

On the foggy stage with blue lighting, there is a silhouette of a performer holding a stick on the floor. At the end of the stick, there lies a small and long tunnel toy with fairy lights inside.

Seven performers are on the stage with their mouths tapes on. In the middle lies a table and one of the performers is standing on it holding up a fire bottle bomb. In the background, there is a huge painting of French revolution

A performer wearing a uniform is holding a knife. Next to the performer lies a watermelon on a table

A performer wearing a uniform is on a phone. There is also a silhouette of a person riding bicycle.

Home / What's on/ A Flower for Pina Bausch

A Flower for Pina Bausch

20th December 2010

A Flower for Pina Bausch takes its inspiration from the words of its namesake, the incomparable artist who once said: “I’m not interested in how people move, I wonder what makes them tick”.

In a theatrical meditation on the universal predicament of “missed opportunities” personal stories are excavated and rigorously interrogated by members of BFT’s permanent ensemble to illuminate lingering phantoms of the unfinished, the unacknowledged, the unsaid.

Seamlessly blending light and shade, humour and pathos, this is a lyrical and expressionistic performance that reaches to touch the broadest arc of the human experience.

“The group’s relentless quest for freedom of expression reaches its sublimated heights with A Flower for Pina Bausch”

Time Out Hong Kong, 2011

GALLERY

Back shot of a person sitting on a chair and a fire in front of the person

A woman with a long red skirt reaching out in the air

A woman with a red fabric wrapped around her arms

A woman holding cutlery in front of the dish rack

A woman with her waist wrapped around with red fabric, arched back and two people pulling each end of the fabric

A man holding a laptop while on a video call with a woman

A woman arched back with her waist wrapped around with red fabric

Home / What's on/ New York ‘79

New York ‘79

28th - 31st May 2010

New York ’79 is BFT’s theatrical response to experimental novelist, feminist and punk icon Kathy Acker’s seminal short story, New York City in 1979, “a tale of art, sex, blood, junkies and whores” that reveals the fault lines between sexual identity, politics and power.

The Guardian, 17 June 2012

Gallery

Close up to an old style microphone standing in front of a red stage curtain

Dark room with a spotlight on the wall on which there lies a red stage curtain. A microphone stands right in front of the curtain. On the right hand side, there is a performer in a pair of sunglasses sitting, wearing a black and red outfit.

Two performers in front of a red stage curtain. One is covered in orange spray paint, loosely wearing a white shirt. The performer is holding a long stick on top of which is attached to a large sheet of white fabric. Another performer stands in front of the white fabric, playing around, wearing an orange wig and tight red latex dress.

A performer is lying down wearing a corset, garter belt and pantyhose. The performer is vigorously moving and three others are knelt down around the performer either trying to stop or help.

Dark room with a large spotlight on a performer who is knelt down on one knee, between two legs of another performer with their legs wide spread out. The one in their knee is holding up an old fashioned microphone horizontally with one hand and is singing.

Dark room with a large spotlight on a wall with red stage curtain. In the middle there is a shadow of a person standing. Another performer is running towards that curtain,

Dark room with a large spotlight on two performers. They are standing in front of a red stage curtain, right behind an old fashioned microphone. One with a gold mask is carrying another on their shoulder. The one being carried is wearing a corset with garter belt and pantyhose, holding a pillow and frowning.

Home / What's on/ On the blessed, blind and sucking

On the blessed, blind and sucking

19th May 2011

On the blessed, blind and sucking is a theatrical creation by members of BFT’s theatre laboratory, Fortinbras, the only independent arts school in Belarus, which was founded by Nicolai Khalezin in 2007. Set in a one-room apartment on the outskirts of Minsk, the production centres around a young girl called Zhenya as she sets out to uncover the secret histories of her own family.

GALLERY

A performer in red cardigan, polka dot skirt and yellow knee-high socks is standing next to a knelt down performer. The one on their knee has their head bent forward as if being punished and holding a piece of chalk and cloth. In front of her, there's line of numbers scribbled with chalk.

Dark room with dim blue rectangle light shining in like it's coming from outside through a window. A performer is sitting on a luggage and drinking something from a bottle.

A line of luggage is sitting in an otherwise empty room. Two people are on the ground one hugging the back of another. Dim blue light is shining on the wall like it's coming from a window

Shadow of three people on a wall. Dim blue light makes everything look blue.

A line of luggage is sitting in an otherwise empty room. Dim blue light is shining on the wall like it's coming from a window. One performer is sitting on a luggage and is reading a book.

In an empty room, several luggage are piled on top of each other. One performer is standing in the middle, holding a black plastic bucket

Two people are standing. One in the right is wearing a red cardigan and a polka dot skirt with their arms on the waist. The one on the left is leaning against the wall, looking down.

Home / What's on/ King Lear

King Lear

17th May 2012

King Lear, Shakespeare’s great play about speaking the truth was one of the highlights of 2012’s Globe to Globe Festival (part of the World Shakespeare Festival, itself part of the 2012 Cultural Olympiad).

Drawing on their first-hand experience of tyranny and exile, BFT premiered a fresh reading of the text drawing parallels between Lear’s spiralling court and Belarusian society, whilst also interrogating the universality of power unwisely yielded.

A stripped-back set and BFT’s characteristically arresting visual style made this a vigorous and thoroughly contemporary Lear.

Watch a clip of Belarus Free Theatre’s production of King Lear here: https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p03bcp4p

“This not-to-be-missed King Lear that feels like a great howl of rage suffused with mortality and absurdity…If you’ve seen these Belarusians before, you’ll already know they are the real deal: artists who have paid such a steep personal price to pursue their calling that high dramatic stakes come with preternatural ease”

The Chicago Tribune, 7 February 2016

Gallery

Four performers with head masks and white vest carrying another performer. While being carried in her tight strapless dress, half of her torso is revealed

On the left-hand side, one performer is on a wheelchair reading something from a brown piece of paper. Between his legs, a stream of water is shooting out and another performer on the right-hand side is catching that stream of water with a mint coloured bucket.

One performer witha a green beanie is lying on the ground with legs up and holding a cigarette. Another performer carrying a performer in black striped suit is bent down right on top of the performer lying down. Both of them are shouting at the performer with a cigarette.

Close up to the performer giving piggyback ride. The one getting the ride is now without the jacket and is holding a bible, desperately holding onto the one giving the ride.

One performer is standing in the middle with a gauntlet on the right hand. On his front and back, two performers with fury coat are hanging on his shoulders with their arms wrapped around.

The performer with a gauntlet on the right hand is pointing at something in front and shouting. Behind him, there is a wave made out of large blue sheet of plastic. Other performers are shaking every end of the plastic to create the wavy effect.

Four performers are naked and are lying one the floor under the blue sheet of plastic. One of them has a gauntlet on the right hand and is talking to the others while sitting sideways. The naked performer on the left has a tattoo on his back that reads "King Lear" with a crown symbol and a drawing of a middle finger out.

The performer with a gauntlet on the right hand is knelt down and is cracking an egg with his forehead. The egg yolk is splashing everywhere.

Two performers are on a large sheet of red plastic. One is lying down with arms spread out, wearing a black eye patch. The other one is on top of that performer, pushing her neck with his palm.

Home / What's on/ Ivanov family’s New Year tree

Ivanov family’s New Year tree

28th December 2012

Ivanov family’s New Year tree is a staging of the 1938 play, Christmas at the Ivanovs’ by Alexander Ivanovich Vvedensky, the preeminent early Soviet-era avant-gardist writer.

An unexplained murder rips through the heart of family festivities on Christmas Eve as a macabre story starts to unfold. Though never performed during Vvedensky’s lifetime, this largely overlooked experimental play remains as astonishingly prescient today as it was in the 1930s reminding us why absurdism, which holds nothing as absolute, is so feared by totalitarian regimes.

GALLERY

Black and white image of people are sitting on a chair along the wall. Two couple stands in the middle showing off a wheelbarrow position.

Black and white image close up to the performer casting spell on a beheaded doll. Other performers are sitting around the witch

Black and white image of a performer with a ushanka hat and trying to get closer to other performers in chair. The others look weary

Black and white image of all the performers celebrating something by shooting confetti cannons

Black and white image of four performers frightened by something and backing up. One other performer is holding up a doll to it with a desperate expression.

Home / What's on/ Animal

Animal

2nd December 2012

Animal is a verbatim play written by BFT’s long-standing ensemble member, Yulia Shevchuk, drawn directly from real life experiences. The story focuses on a family of young alcoholics – Seriozha and an unnamed woman – to explore the idea of everyday heroism and the extraordinary ordinary.

Sometimes those closest to us – our neighbours, our friends and our families – are the people we notice the least. Animal redirects our attention towards the rediscovery of the known in a celebration of compassion and understanding.

“In the verbatim “animal” love as the highest value is called into question. Glorified as the highest feeling, it turns out, albeit in an anomalous form, to be accessible, including to animals. And the person, it turns out, is something else. Yulia Shevchuk with the actors of the Free Theater discovers this different: it becomes visible and obvious when a person, regardless of his social status, loses it, turning into – an animal.”

Tania Arcimovich (theatre critic), 7 June 2013

Home / What's on/ Nearest and Dearest

Nearest and Dearest

Close up and blurry image of the hands of a performer knelt on the floor. The performer's hands are together and little pieces of paper are lined up in one line next to a jar

21st December 2012

Nearest and Dearest is a theatrical staging of a collection of short stories by contemporary Belarusian playwright, Konstantin Steshik. Steshik received the Special Prize in the First International Contest of Contemporary Drama in 2005 – a competition originated by Belarus Free Theatre – for his play Red Hood.

Nearest and Dearest is a vividly retelling of intimate childhood memories as the veil of nostalgia is lifted to reveal hard truths about the profound emotional void between ourselves and those closest to us.

“It’s great when you go after a show and in your head there are so many thoughts, impressions and emotions….such fermentation. This is a very pleasant feeling, bordered by happiness. You know, that intermediate moment, you are no longer in the audience, but you would still be there. Thank you guys for this, you are very, very cool!”

Audience member, 18 December 2016