Belarus "Free Theatre" is Under Attack by Militia in Minsk, Belarus

Michael Batiukov

November 30, 1999

On August 22nd, 2007 at about 22:30 pm in Minsk, Belarus, belarussian militia have rushed into the private house in area of Bangalor where a premier performance of Edward Bonda's play "11 shirts" by "Free Theatre" was taking place. More than 50 people were taken to the Soviet District Militia Station for a pure interrogation (probably, under duress, as always). After 3 hours 30 of them including a French director Christian Benedetti (Art-Manager of French Theatre-Studio "Artfoville") and two professors of one of the Dutch theatrical schools were released.

Nevertheless, there are more than 10 people, including the Art-Director of "Free Theatre" Nikolay Khalezin, his spouse Natalia Kolyada, youth leader Paul Yukhnevich and other actors and simple spectators are still in the station.

" The author of the play Edward Bond allows to play performance only in informal places for a youth audience. The Bonda's play "11 shirts" shows in details how the violence destroys young individuality. To us it became clear, that theatre today is the opponent of the authority, and by quantity of employees of law enforcement bodies which have rushed now to us on performance, problems with freedom in the state will be solved only when our theatre would not be touched ", - has said Nikolay Khalezin before he was taken to the station.

"Free Theatre" - the independent theatrical project which today plays the performances on prestigious platforms of Europe, however and for sure, it is forbidden in Belarus. Also "Free Theatre" became a member of the European Theatrical Convention (ETC) and has been nominated for reception of the most prestigious European theatrical award - "Premiums of Europe". On August 4th, 2007 Belarus "Free Theatre" delegation had a chance to meet a world-famous politician and playwright, and ex-President Vaclav Havel in Czech Republic.

More information about Belarus "Free Theatre"

you can find here:

http://dramaturg.org/index.php?lang=en

Long live Free Theatre in Free Belarus!

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