EmDEm (2012) is a contemporary dance work created by members of BFT’s theatre laboratory, Fortinbras, the only independent arts school in Belarus.
Welcome to the Capital Punishment Café! Our chef’s specials today include electrocution, hanging and lethal injection. Provocative and urgent, Trash Cuisine pierces the imagination with moments of the darkest humour as it challenges the ongoing existence of capital punishment in the contemporary world. 55 countries retain the death penalty in both law and practice, and Europe remains on the list of continents where capital punishment still exists – in 2020 – because of Belarus. BFT serve up food, music, dance and Shakespeare as true stories from inmates, executioners, human rights lawyers and families of the executed take centre-stage.
Watch a clip of Trash Cuisine here: https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p038x5sq
“Once again, Belarus Free Theatre prove their capacity to stir our consciences through their sensuous theatricality”
The Guardian, 6 June 2013
Seagull is a contemporary dance work from BFT’s choreographer and senior ensemble member, Mariya Sazonova.
In this non-verbal deconstruction of Anton Chekhov’s The Seagull, Sazonova realises an intensely original take on one of the great text-based masterworks of the theatrical canon.
Sazonova’s choreography places primal turmoil above order and perfection, as the limits of the human body are continually confronted. The result is a liberation of the timeless themes of The Seagull in a blazingly expressionistic and visceral performance.
“In Chekhov’s “Seagull” only Treplev shot himself out of desperation. In the new Belarusian “Seagull” all the figures stuck two fingers in the throat. “They raped Chekhov,” the girl Alesia was indignant. Yes, it is unlikely that Chekhov thought he would be put that way. But it sounds off the stage again and again, and is relevant again. So much so that someone wants to ban it.”
Charter 97, 18 February 2014
Merry Christmas, Ms Meadows is a theatrical homage to the eponymous trans* teacher who took their own life in the wake of relentless vilification by the UK’s tabloid press. From frenzied fetishisation to life-threatening demonisastion the production goes on to explore different aspects of gender identity and sexual orientation through the stories – past and present, both real and imagined – of LGBTQI people across the world.
“activist theatre gone right. Belarus Free Theatre combine urgency and innovative production design in a play that is both a thing of beauty and a convincing argument that issues of gender and sexuality deserve our continued attention”
The Skinny, 2 September 2014
Over the past fifteen years BFT has continually exploded obvious and hidden societal taboos on the world stage. Do Not Give Up sees members of BFT’s theatre laboratory, Fortinbras, the only independent arts school in Belarus, pick up this mantle. Examining holy and unholy texts, the rituals and accoutrements of different world religions, this is a powerfully meditative theatrical exploration of faith.
“It was interesting to see how young and non-professional actors get into different images and incarnate the author’s intention. Well done! It’s really good….Good luck to the laboratory and the director in future shows”
Audience member, 25 December 2014
Time of Women is a play about three women on the forefront of the movement for a democratic Belarus: Irina Khalip, the PEN Pinter Prize-winning journalist arrested for her coverage of Lukashenko’s regime, described by Sir Tom Stoppard as “the writer I wanted to be”; journalist Natalya Radina who was also imprisoned after the 2010 presidential elections causing Amnesty International to name her a prisoner of conscience demanding her release together with the Committee to Protect Journalists; and the human rights activist Nasta Palazhanka, who campaigned tirelessly for the release of her loved one Zmitser Dashkevich upon her release from prison.
‘Intense and highly watchable……a gritty, candid and altogether vivid portrait of the women’s plight, enhanced by the actors’ vibrant performances”
The Washington Post, 11 November 2015
Earth No. 2 is a staging of three plays by Maxim Dosko, the contemporary Belarusian artist and playwright who won the VII International Contest of Contemporary Drama, a competition originated by BFT.
Titanium tells of an amateur astronomer, a freelance employee of the Academy of Science in Belarus, who is planning to film a message for future generations about the most vivid experience of his life.
Compassion focuses on a day in the life of Lesha, set on a day that goes from bad to worse. As tensions and aggressions reach boiling point, Lesha hears a song about a cat and resolves that he now “probably understands everything”. We leave him heading to bed with the hope that he will wake up tomorrow as new person.
London follows a Belarusian man trying to make the UK capital his new home in a moving examination of homesickness and the challenges of integrating into a different culture.
“There are no sharp judgments and assessments in the show “Earth No. 2”, and this distinguishes it from other performances of the Belarus Free Theater about Belarusian everyday life. Maxim Dosko and Vladimir Shcherban together with the actors try to find the truth just in this space “between”, at the same time alienating themselves from reality and feeling their direct involvement in it. This allows you to create the feeling of a performance – a spaceship that went into unknown space in search of an earthly man”
Tania Arcimovich (theatre critic), 4 February 2015
Money makes the world go ‘round. Maybe you have it, maybe you don’t – either way its grasp is as inescapable as is its power to determine our lives, thoughts and actions.
Inspired by Aristophanes’ Plutus, the first political satire from ancient Athens; Ben Johnson’s The Staple of News on the emerging ethics of capitalism; and Time for Outrage, the inspirational text by nonagenarian writer/diplomat Stéphane Hessel which became the manifesto for the Occupy movement, Price of Money is a blistering attack on capitalism and greed.
“a scathing satire of economic inequality and shameless excess”
American Theatre Magazine, 1 December 2015
Red Forest is a modern epic that explores the impact of war and environmental crisis on some of the most vulnerable people in the world.
In 1986, radiation from the nuclear reactor explosion in Chernobyl spread across Belarus, Ukraine, Scandinavia and Western Europe, and the forests downwind turned a brilliant red. Thirty years later it was still one of the most contaminated areas on the planet.
Interweaving live music and choreography with true stories and native folklore from Belarus, Brazil, Nigeria and India, Red Forest is a contemporary folk tale for our globalised world.
“This is what gives Red Forest a particular poignancy – it’s not just that it has the ability to look at other governments and suffering brought about by those regimes – but the fact that by doing so, they are able to undermine their own dictatorship even more through a global lens”
Theatre Bubble, June 2014
Territory of Ghosts takes the audience on an eye-opening journey to the remotest recesses of Belarus, both in time and in place, to uncover stories long hidden and largely forgotten.
Drawn from documentary material researched and collated by BFT’s permanent ensemble these “ghosts” are brought vividly back to life in this revelatory and unforgettable performance.
“The performance causes both horror and laughter, as Belarusian legends are intertwined with the personal mystical experiences of the actors. But especially touching are the stories of witnesses – simple, clever, worthy and in their own way unusual – from people in the Belarusian hinterland”
Belsat TV, 18 January 2016
The Ugly One is one of the most celebrated works by contemporary German playwright and dramaturg, Marius von Mayenburg.
Performed by members of BFT’s theatre laboratory, Fortinbras, the only independent arts school in Belarus, this savage social satire with its themes of identity, conformism and quest for physical perfection gains greater magnitude in the hands of young people living under dictatorship
“Unusual and impressive!!”
Audience member, 17 February 2013