Small Forward - Belarus Free Theatre @ Barbican Pit

Working with famous Belarusian basketball player Katya Snetsyna, Belarus Free Theatre’s latest production, KS6: Small Forward, focusses on Katya’s experience of coming to the realisation of the atrocities her government commits against its citizens, and being ostracised and outcast herself after standing up against the dictatorship, speaking out, and coming out as homosexual. 

The production deploys Belarus Free Theatre’s trademark playful stagecraft, this time framing the production around a basketball game, including a kiss cam, live DJ, and half time basket competition. While it is fun and engaging, the production as a whole doesn’t quite hang together — which is unfortunate, as the story is compelling, and important to raise awareness. 

The use of music was clever, with the live DJ Blanka Barbara not only hyping up the crowd as if at a basketball game, but then also live mixing the underscoring for the entire play. The design used the tools of a gym and basketball game to create multiple spaces and evoke feelings which were at times really powerful, but also at times didn’t quite have the desired impact. 

All in all not a bad production, just not their best — which is unfortunate as the subject matter deserves attention. While led by Snetsyna who is an engaging person (she lit up in the pre-show chat) most moments of her as an actor fell flat — which is fair for a first time actor leading such a huge story. Additionally, I really liked the touch of sharing images and QR to write to prisoners, but although it did tie in to an element of the story (when she speaks of her friend who was imprisoned) the link feels tenuous — and again here I just wanted it to connect a little more deeply. 

review. Burning Doors - Belarus Free Theatre @ Luminato Festival

In case you forgot, there is a war going on. A war not only of annexation of Crimea by Russia, which Ukrainians are resisting, but also a war against the artists and others who protest the Russian annexation as well as the totalitarian measures enacted within Russia on their people. 

Belarus Free Theatre make their Luminato (and I believe Canadian) debut with a piece of theatre centred as many of their pieces are around the imprisonment of artists under current totalitarian regimes. Unlike some of their other work, however, the stories told in this piece not only come from artists like Pussy Riot's Maria Alyokhina who is now free (and joins the company in the creation and performance) but also in artists still sitting in Russian prisons, like Ukrainian filmmaker Oleg Sentsov. 

The work is urgent. Using their language of extreme physical exertion, the company are led by artistic Director Natalia Kaliada and Nikolai Khalezin in the creation of a performance that is demanding. One that doesn't allow the audience to sit back and watch, but requires them to endure, much like Sentsov continues to as he endures day 37 of his hunger strike. What I always find striking in their work is the inclusion of humour. Dark and biting, their portrayal of the Russian yes-men as selfish and idiotic, while completely flippant about the lives of others is the perfect counterpoint to the extreme images of physical abuse and torture we see elsewhere in the production. Images of bodies dangling from circus ropes, or thrust out into the audience unsettle and inquire. Repetition of gesture defamiliarizes, seducing us into seeing the actors as just bodies, then jarring us into remembrance that these are real, living, breathing people. 

For many, the work is too extreme. The actors work like athletes, and have the physiques to show it. Hurling themselves through space, lifting and carrying one another. What's amazing is to see the reactions of a North American audience to this kind of dangerous physical work. While this tradition is far more common in Eastern Europe in the tradition of Grotowski and Barba, in North America this is foreign. 

Their work is not for everyone. It is difficult to watch, and causes some to shut off. I believe, however that it is this intentional polarization that makes the work so evocative. They don't just politely ask us to act, they require it. 

If you haven't seen their work, you should. But prepare. This is not easy watching, no matter how prepared you think you are. 

For more on Oleg Sentsov and the campaign to free him, visit the joint statement issued by Luminato and TIFF earlier this month.