Free Theatre

The Sunday before last I was at the Young Vic to see a performance by the Belarus Free Theatre company. I went for two reasons: the first was to learn about Belarus - the people, the politics and why people risk getting arrested to attend theatre; and the second reason was to test my assumptions about the purpose and value of theatre.


... if I'm completely honest there was also a third reason and that was to see Jude Law (despite the mo - still a hottie!) in the flesh alongside Sir Ian McKellen, Sam West and Sienna Miller.


The Belarus Free Theatre company were formed around 5 years ago to give creative expression to the injustices faced by the Belarusian people under an oppressive neo-Stalinist regime. They are a small ensemble who rehearse and perform in secret locations that are advertised through word of mouth and a system of furtive text messaging. In a country where people who oppose the government regularly disappear, the theatre company is kept alive (literally) through a broad network of high profile international support from celebrities and organisations, particularly in the UK. As well as the people mentioned above, Harold Pinter, Tom Stoppard, and Steven Spielberg have been vocal supporters.


The company performed a double bill of two plays which focused on the suffering of the Belarusians. Both plays were Brechtian in style as they presented a flood of facts, statistics and stories to overwhelm the audience underscored by projected text and images, music and dance. The question of whether or not the theatre was any 'good' is kind of beside the point. The performers were obviously talented and passionate about the work. The writer(s) had a lot to say and the words tumbled over us in long unedited prose - like someone who is allowed to tell a story they've been bottling up for years and years and so they tell it in a rush trying to get all the words out without missing any detail.


Editing, design, structure, dramatisation and ambiguity are all luxuries we enjoy and indeed take for granted in theatre. Theatre that strives to educate can easily be boring. Which is where the active participation of the audience becomes crucial in forcing themselves to engage with what they are seeing and to appreciate the road it has travelled to reach the stage.


Theatre is story telling. Story telling which has become highly sophisticated in some parts of the world. So was theatre effective? The audience certainly sat up in their seats when Jude Law stepped onto the stage, and Sir Ian before him.
The producer of the company, Natalia Koliada, spoke to the audience and explained that their aim in performing tonight was to get ordinary people like us to engage emotionally with the ordinary people of Belarus and for us to give them our support. 


I was disappointed as I'm sure the theatre we were shown tonight is not the theatre that people risk their lives to see. Understandably they would have felt they needed to take this opportunity to impart some important messages to us and they wouldn't want to risk leaving the message up to our own interpretation.
It occurred to me as I watched the actors, that despite all the infastructure and production trappings that accompany theatre, teh essential magic of theatre is that it can be created out of thin air. While this 'dangerous' theatre is squashed in their country, these actors could carry their weapons on the street, through customs and across borders without detection. In fact, a number of their talented British supporters carried amunition - in the form of acting training  - into Belarus where they worked with the company in secret.


Writing from London - where there is theatre in every form -  the fact that the Belarus Free Theatre company exists is exciting. An art form that can sometimes be pure entertainment can also be a secret tunnel.