Being Harold Pinter

Mountain Language, One For The Road, The Homecoming, Old Times, Ashes to Ashes, The New World Order, Nobel Lecture of Harold Pinter, Letters of Belarusian political prisoners.

The Belarus Free Theatre doesn’t officially exist. It sprang to life in 2005 in response to the authoritarian rule of President Alexander Lukashenko, who has viciously suppressed freedom of expression and political opposition.

Company members have been evicted, beaten and arrested. To see them perform in Belarus you put your name on a secret list and wait for an SMS telling you a time and place on the city outskirts. Then you’re bussed to a makeshift theatre in a basement, a café, even a cemetery.

Being Harold Pinter is wild, anarchic theatre at its purest. Extracts from Pinter’s plays and his Nobel Prize speech transform into a harrowing account of artistic and political repression in Europe’s last dictatorship. Funny and menacing, this is a powerful instance of life imitating art.

In August 2007 the entire cast and audience were arrested mid-performance. Company B and the Sydney Festival were proud to give the Belarus Free Theatre a home for two weeks.

Nikolai Khalezin
Pavel Gorodnitski
Yana Rusakevich
Oleg Sidorchik
Hanna Solomianskaya
Denis Tarasenko
Marina Yurevich

Adapted & Directed by Vladimir Scherban
Assistant Managers Irina Yaroshevich & Maryia Vavokhina
Producers Natalia Koliada & Nikolai Khalezin
Lighting Realiser Stephen Hawker
Lighting / AV Operator Holly Woollard
Sound Operator Alex Manojlovic

Production Images by Heidrun Lohr

Is the Belarus “Free Theatre” the bravest theatre company in the world?

London Daily Telegraph

It’s an extraordinary event… proves that poor theatre can often deliver the richest dramatic experience.

The Guardian