fire in the belly
AN ESSAY IN PHOTOS AND WORDS BY CLARE ROBERTSON
FROM HER RECENT TRIP TO MINSK TO VISIT UNDERGROUND THEATRE COMPANY BELARUS FREE THEATRE
FROM HER RECENT TRIP TO MINSK TO VISIT UNDERGROUND THEATRE COMPANY BELARUS FREE THEATRE
In January 2015, after eleven years living in Dublin, I packed my possessions into my ’99 Nissan Almera and took the ferry to London in order to join the remarkable Belarus Free Theatre – the only theatre company in Europe banned by its government on political grounds.
Founded in Minsk in 2005, BFT emerged as a direct challenge to the absolute censorship of freedom of artistic expression in ‘Europe’s last dictatorship’. The company was immediately forced underground, facing harassment and persecution for its role in challenging the status quo and demanding recognition for those hidden on the margins of Belarus’ repressive society. In 2011, in the wake of the fallout from the 2010 presidential ‘elections’, the company’s artistic leaders, Natalia Kaliada, Nicolai Khalezin and Vladimir Shcherban, were forced into exile. Becoming political refugees in the UK, BFT was given its first real home in The Young Vic theatre in London. Since then, BFT has existed between Minsk and London, working across borders to create, campaign and educate – building a movement for democratisation, human rights and artistic freedom. BFT Minsk has, against the odds, continued to operate and thrive. There, our two managers and permanent ensemble of eight actors continue to perform regularly as well as carrying out daily teaching and education projects for young artists and activists through our two year training programme, Studio Fortinbras. Shows are rehearsed between the UK and Belarus by Skype and the company performs in temporary underground spaces, constantly anticipating having to move on again. Our audiences face potential detention and harassment simply for attending a performance and are asked to bring their passports with them in case of a police raid. Internationally, BFT continues to tour, perform and campaign for social justice and the protection of people stigmatized and ostracized by their societies. The company believes that although restrictions of free expression exist in their absolute form in Belarus, we must challenge and resist the limits to artistic freedom and barriers to mutual understanding wherever they occur, seeking to move beyond ‘socially-informed’ theatre to create work that drives real social change. In July I travelled to Minsk for the closing of our 2016–2017 season. This was my second visit to Belarus and this time I was relieved to be able to take advantage of the new visa-free travel implemented earlier this year, which meant that I didn’t have to pretend to be a tourist complete with a fake itinerary in order to secure a visa. Despite this, as my flight landed in Minsk international airport, my stomach tightened and my heart raced as I prepared to cross the border. |
Minsk is the most depressing place I’ve even been, and even the July sunshine didn’t serve to brighten the grey streets or lighten the heavy cloud that you felt enveloping you. When visiting for the first time in December 2015, I couldn’t believe that our ensemble members, these vibrant young people that I’d drunk wine with in Italy and gone clubbing with in London, could exist in this grey, empty and soulless city. But on entering our performance space (a garage designed to hold two cars) I understood that they were the lucky ones. They, unlike the other 1.9 million inhabitants of Minsk, had found a space where they were free to create, to play and to express themselves. The wifi password ‘to be free’ tells you everything you need to know about why, in spite of danger to themselves and their families, and no possibility of other employment as an actor due to their association with BFT, our ensemble members choose to work with the company.
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This time I was in Minsk to see two new productions, to assess their potential for international touring and to be the eyes of the directors who had only seen the performances by Skype: Sparrow, our first participatory work which explores the hidden histories of Belarus through an immersive dining experience with food and music sparking conversation and debate; and the premiere of House No. 5, a new project devised with and performed by three young people living with disabilities and the students of Studio Fortinbras. This production is part of our two-year campaign highlighting the barriers faced by people living with disabilities in Belarus and calling on the authorities to respect their obligations under the UN Convention on the Rights of People with Disabilities. Both pieces were extraordinary and it was just as interesting for me to observe how the audience was responding to them. We held a discussion after the performance of House no. 5 and although I had an understanding of what life is like when you have a disability in Belarus, it blew my mind that the audience kept returning to the same observations – that they had never had a conversation with someone with a disability before and they had been, up to this point, scared of them.
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After five days in Minsk, I was incredibly glad to leave the poverty and oppression of the city and my heart leapt as my plane touched down in Gatwick. BFT’s ensemble are extraordinarily inspiring, not least because they have chosen not to emigrate like many of their generation, but to stay and fight to change a country that doesn’t accept them for who they are. My trip was a stark reminder of the importance of the rights that we have in the UK and Ireland, how vital it is that we fight not only to keep them, but to work for progress. For me, in 2017 there’s no space to be complacent – it’s not acceptable not to be politically engaged. If anyone needs a trip to Minsk to get some fire in your belly, I’d be very happy to arrange.
Clare Robertson is General Manager/Producer with Belarus Free Theatre. More on BFT here.
Published: September 2nd 2017 |