Burning Doors is powerful theatre in solidarity with those who refuse to be silenced. Shining a light on the total suppression of artistic freedoms just a three-hour flight from London, the production illuminates the role of contemporary artists in dictatorial societies and examines what happens to people when they are declared enemies of the state simply for making art.

Through the lens of three artists – Pussy Riot’s Maria Alyokhina, Russian Actionist and political artist, Petr Pavlensky, and incarcerated Ukrainian film-maker, Oleg Sentsov – and drawing on their own experience as political refugees, BFT explore the psychological impact of imprisonment, exile and forced migration, casting their gaze towards the displacement of people due to political persecution and conflict arriving in Europe today.

Tsar Tsar is an outdoor theatre production created by BFT ensemble member, Andrei Urazau. Performed on the river on a handmade wooden raft, Tsar Tsar revives the time-honoured tradition of travelling theatre, a format created to engage rural audiences in theatre by taking it directly to them.

Based on the popular Russian folk tale of Tsar Maximilian, an evil leader who endeavours to oppress his people before they revolt against him, Tsar Tsar is compelling theatre for all the family.

Today No One Was Born by Olga Prusak, winner of the VII International Contest of Contemporary Drama originated by BFT, is a semi-autobiographical work, based on the playwright’s experience of giving birth in Belarus.

With astonishing honesty, Prusak exposes prevalent attitudes towards women in maternity hospitals in Minsk – women reduced solely to their reproductive role, treated an “incubator for producing new citizens” in a scandalous depiction of the “sterility of hospitals verging on violence and disrespect”. 

Further inspiration came in the form of the March 2017 protests in Belarus, on which Prusak reflected: “I observed the arrest and the actions of the riot police, and I reflected that even these brutal agents of the state have a mother waiting for them at home”. Shining a light on women at their most vulnerable yet most powerful, this is quietly devastating theatre.

House No. 5 is a co-creation between BFT and members of the Company’s theatre laboratory, Fortinbras, the only independent arts school in Belarus, which was founded by Nicolai Khalezin in 2007.

Set in modern-day Minsk, House No. 5 transforms real-life testimonials into an evocative theatrical portrait of the everyday experiences of disabled people, performed by a cast of Fortinbras students and disabled non-professional actors. The production confronts the daily reality of exclusion and “otherness” to expose deep-rooted stereotypes and prejudices that deny true equality of opportunity to disabled people.

The Master Had a Talking Sparrow is an immersive theatrical experience centred around a dystopian family dinner. The evening begins with superficial pleasantries and innocuous observations as the diners share their memories and experiences of the twentieth century, before rapidly descending into revelations of dark and long-hidden truths.

Inspired by Zmitser Bartosik’s book of the same name, the production blasts through rose-tinted nostalgia to point the finger squarely at the icons and demigods who brought Belarus and its people to their knees.

Acclaimed by audiences and critics alike, The Master Had a Talking Sparrow was crowned as the Number One show in Belarus in 2017, as critic Evgeniy Bachischev, attests: “For the first time, I understand that I am faced with something that is not only important but also new. In reality this is the production that will become the legend”.

Déjà vu by contemporary Belarusian playwright Olga Prusak, winner of the VII International Contest of Contemporary Drama originated by BFT, tells the story of Katya, a woman who transforms her parochial life with the help of a little stardust.

To the outside observer, Katya has a good life: she has a job, she is intelligent, kind, and physically healthy – but in her heart she yearns for more. By injecting unbridled imagination into the everyday Déjà vu is a vigorous reminder of the magic of theatre and its power to transform our perceptions as well as our realities.

In a major policy shift, the government has announced a moratorium on funding for performing arts organisations Australia-wide. The Trustees of Melbourne’s fictional Lone Pine Theatre Company gather to assess the damage. Amid the chatter and outrage and belligerence of public conversation lies a void: the Great Australian Silence. What are we afraid of hearing? Who are we afraid will say it? 

Commissioned by The Malthouse, Trustees is explosive political theatre written by BFT’s co-founding Artistic Directors Natalia Kaliada and Nicolai Khalezin and devised together with some of Australia’s leading stage performers: Tammy Anderson, Natasha Herbert, Niharika Senapati, Hazem Shammas, and Daniel Schlusser.

DerMagenFinDelMöön – Stories by Kharms is a theatrical staging of 15 short stories by the early Soviet-era’s leading avant-gardist and absurdist writer, Daniil Kharms, in a directorial debut from one of BFT’s most senior ensemble members, Pavel Horodnitski.

Kharms’ writing is as prescient today as it was last century, illuminating the hair’s breadth between absurdity and tragedy in a raft of unforgettable tales of irrational bureaucracy, farcical miscommunication, romantic love and human loss.

Koan is a contemporary dance work created by BFT’s choreographer and senior ensemble member, Mariya Sazonova, inspired by Samuel Beckett’s great masterwork, Waiting for Godot, as well as its namesake – Koan – a construct of Zen Buddhism referring to a succinct paradoxical statement or question used as a meditation discipline for novices.

Breathtaking choreography repeats and repeats in a frenzied – yet never resolved – loop, as Koan speaks to the agony of being in a vigorously physical and hypnotic performance.

Alone explores the existential pain of Ukraine through the eyes of an unlikely protagonist, one of the country’s most commercially successful pop stars.

Andrei Khluvniuk, lead singer of hip-hop rock outfit Boombox, has millions of devoted young fans who adore him as a singer songwriter and sex symbol but know nothing of his personal turmoil caused by the political instability and naked aggression his homeland faces.  Andrei is on a mission; to raise awareness and motivate his fans to join him in taking a stand against the war in the east of Ukraine, stolen territories annexed by the Kremlin and the dozens of political prisoners held in Russian jails.  As tensions between Ukraine and Russia become a footnote on the world’s media agenda, he’s determined to use his fame and talents to refocus the global spotlight on the fragile independence his country is literally fighting for.

In the company of internationally acclaimed artist activists, Natalia Kaliada and Nikolai Khalezin from Belarus Free Theatre, Andrei embarks on a journey of personal discovery witnessing how dissidents and campaigners from across Europe use performance to protest in support of basic human rights and as a catalyst for social change.  He experiences how Belarus Free Theatre are forced to stage underground productions where actors and audience alike risk arrest and persecution at the hands of dictator Lukashenko’s repressive KGB forces.  He gains insight into how personal stories are woven into the creative process alongside Masha from Pussy Riot as an emotionally wrecking and physically gruelling theatre production is developed and staged.  He meets survivors of torture, hears the tragic stories of political refugees and begins to shape an ambitious personal statement on a huge logistical scale; staging a stadium size rigged concert to nobody but the land where the illegal military border established by Russia now lies with the annexation of Crimea.  His goal; to support the release of Ukrainian political prisoner, Oleg Senstov, serving 20 years on false charges of terrorism in a Siberian jail and at the time of filming, over 50 days on hunger strike.

Alone is the story of how music and art can be used in as a language of protest and inspire hope and reconciliation. As the title of one of Andrei’s signature hits, a simple love song, the lyrics of Alone take on a powerful metaphor about heartbreak, sacrifice and his dreams for his children, his people and his country.  Alone is a powerful and moving documentary that is lent a sensitivity and insight not least by the directorial debut of Natalia Kaliada whose personal experience of being forced into exile helps navigate both Andrei’s political crusade as well as unforeseen events that threaten to undermine the whole protest.  Alone is made in collaboration with two-time Emmy award winner and twice BAFTA-nominated documentary producer, Andrew Smith and Belarus Free Theatre Artistic Director, Nikolai Khalezin.

Counting Sheep an award-winning immersive Ukrainian folk opera, is a deeply personal retelling of the revolution in Ukraine, where creators Mark and Marichka Marczyk met and fell in love on the barricades of Maidan Square in Kiev in 2014.

Performed using traditional Ukrainian polyphonic choral music, archive footage and interactive staging, audience members are invited to become part of the revolution itself.

The show was a critically acclaimed sold-out hit at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in 2016, and in 2019 BFT’s co-founding Artistic Directors Natalia Kaliada and Nicolai Khalezin directed a new version, introducing English language monologues telling the story of the Marczyks’ love affair – where the political becomes personal and the personal, political.