PAST EVENT: Index on Censorship presents…GO EAST!

20 Aug 10 | Events

Index on Censorship presents…
Go East! Sun 29 Aug
Bethnal Green Working Men’s Club, E2 6NB
7pm ’til late
Belarus Free Theatre * Comedy: Miriam Elia, The Fix * DJs from Panik.com

A day and night of cabaret, comedy and DJs, with a performance from the sensational underground Belarus Free Theatre!

Join Index on Censorship, the UK’s leading freedom of expression organisation, and the Belarus Free Theatre at the Bethnal Green Working Men’s Club, for a packed night of cabaret, comedy from Sony award short listed Miriam Elia and The Fix – and all-night mischief. Come and see a mischievous mix of Belarusian funk DJs, live music, cabaret and comedians – all for the exceptionally brave people who dare to speak up, and challenge Belarus’s dictator Lukashenko.

24 hours left to get £5 tickets:
http://go-east.eventbrite.com/

The multi-award winning Belarus Free Theatre, banned in their native Belarus, is renowned for staging underground and uncensored performances that draw attention to the continuing problems faced by Belarusians in “Europe’s last dictatorship”. Their recent performances, including at the Soho Theatre, London and the Under the Radar Festival, New York, have won widespread acclaim. On July 13 the troop performed a rendition of ‘Numbers’ in an event hosted by Index on Censorship and presented by Tom Stoppard at the Free Word Centre in London.

Confirmed DJs: Panik, Mr. Chips, DJ Perry Stroika and the Tblisi Sound Machine & DJ Gaz Nost.

Making a drama out of a crisis

19 Jul 10 | Uncategorized

The Observer’s Nick Cohen writes about Index’s event with the Belarus Free Theatre at the Free Word Centre:

The Belarus Free Theatre arrived in London last week and seemed to take us from the 2010s to the 1970s. Everything was as it had been in the cold war. Just as Havel and Kundera came to speak for oppressed Czechs, so the actors from Europe’s last dictatorship are the most prominent and bravest critics of Belarus’s rotting Brezhnevian state. Just as Tom Stoppard was a friend to east European dissidents during communism, so he is a friend to Belarussia’s underground artists today. Following tradition once more, Stoppard welcomed them to Britain on behalf of Index on Censorship, which Stephen Spender created in 1972 to speak for persecuted Soviet writers.

Read the rest here

Belarus Free Theatre – Numbers

16 Jul 10 | News and features

A recording of a performance of “Numbers”, directed by Vladimir Shcherban, performed in secret by the Belarus Free Theatre, an outlaw theatre group in Europe’s last dictatorship.

Now watch

Video: Natalia Koliada on surviving in Europe’s last dictatorship

Video: Sir Tom Stoppard presents… Belarus Free Theatre

Sir Tom Stoppard presents… Belarus Free Theatre

16 Jul 10 | News and features

On Tuesday, 13 July, Index on Censorship hosted a very special event at the Free Word Centre in London. Index played host to the Belarus Free Theatre, an outlaw company that defies Europe’s last dictatorship to produce challenging, contemporary drama

Award-winning playwright Sir Tom Stoppard, who has long associations with both Index on Censorship and the Belarus Free Theatre, introduced the evening:

Now watch

Video: Natalia Koliada on surviving in Europe’s last dictatorship

Video: Belarus Free Theatre perform Numbers