Political violence captured on stage

In their own country, members of the Belarus Free Theatre hold performances deep in forests or at private apartments for fear of being arrested. Their uncensored productions, which highlight the realities of living under Europe’s last dictatorship, have landed actors and audience members in jail.

They have also attracted some high profile supporters, including rockstar Mick Jagger, playwrights Tom Stoppard and Harold Pinter, actors Alan Rickman and Kim Cattrall, and Czech President Vaclav Havel.

In Australia for the first time this month, Belarus Free Theatre will perform their latest production, Being Harold Pinter, inspired by the influential playwright who died just last month.

Mixing text from Pinter’s plays and Nobel Prize speech with transcripts from Belarusian political prisoners, it is a powerful piece of theatre.

Human rights activist Natalya Kolyada, who founded the company with her husband Nikolai Khalezin in 2005, said Pinter’s works perfectly captured the violence experienced by her country people.

“We started to read all his plays and his Nobel speech that was absolutely tremendous, and we understood that he is writing about us,” Ms Kolyada told AAP.

“We didn’t believe it was possible to know violence so deeply, not having been inside the conditions.

“We decided we wanted to show that the violence that happens in his plays happens these days in our country.”

Ms Kolyada calls the Belarusians who come to see their shows “the most brave audience in the world” because they know the potential consequences of their attendance.

In August 2007, a performance by Belarus Free Theatre was stormed by state police and 50 people were arrested.

“When we are at home we try to find any possibility (to perform) but usually it’s private houses, or if it’s summer we even show it in the woods,” Ms Kolyada said.

“But we make it under the coverage of a wedding or birthdays.”

Being Harold Pinter opens tonight at the Belvoir St Theatre as part of the Sydney Festival, before travelling to Brisbane and then to the Q Theatre in Penrith.

The company will dedicate their Australian shows to Pinter, who was an avid supporter of their cause.

“We have this aim to stop dictatorship by means of the theatre and we do really need the help of people outside Belarus,” Ms Kolyada said.

“We need solidarity, and it was done by absolutely wonderful people like…Harold Pinter and we hope we will ask such support here in Australia.”