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.

Welfare is the first play from Mariya Bialkovich, directed by Yulia Shevchuk, both long-standing BFT ensemble members. Inspired by Bialkovich’s own neighbourhood ‘group chat’, the play tells of an extraordinary day in the life of an ‘angry neighbour’ who is obsessed with finding fault with those who live around her – from raucous drunken night-time revelry to endless noisy building work, cigarette smoke and barking dogs.

One day the ‘angry neighbour’ is forced to put down her phone and interact with her neighbours in ‘real life’. A quick trip to the shops yields a series of exasperating and increasingly absurd encounters: first a policeman, then a nun, an old man, a child and finally… God?

The questions she must confront in the end: who is making whose life a misery, and perhaps more importantly, why are we all so angry?

Dogs of Europe is a visceral, psychological drama set in the near future, depicting a dystopian super-state in which individual rights have given way to control.

Based on the novel by Alhierd Bacharevic, Dogs of Europe is widely considered one of the most important literary works ever published in Belarus offering a powerful warning of the corrupting influences of dictatorship.

Adapted for the stage by Belarus Free Theatre, the production reveals how authoritarianism is contagious – how it penetrates all aspects of daily life as oppression isn’t just meted out by a national figurehead but by everyone across all walks of society.