The Free Theatre of Belarus

The Free Theatre of Belarus, not yet a year old, has no home and no permanent troupe. It staged a while in a bar in an industrial neighborhood of Minsk, but the authorities warned the bar's owner to stop. The theatre now performs in private apartments and in places that are not openly advertised - and, increasingly, abroad.
 
"Our main focus is theatre that reacts to today's events," Vladimir Shcherban, a director of the Free Theater, as said in an interview in Minsk in January. "It speaks the language of our time." Mr. Shcherban's productions have been banned at the state-controlled theatre where he works.
 
"On one hand, it makes life very difficult for them," Mr. Stoppard said, referring to the government's repressive control, which includes warnings from state theatre managers and the secret police. "On the other hand - and this isn't a recommendation for being a suppressed writer, the consolation is that your work matters."
 
Below a small part of the theatre from the Free Theater of Belarus. Journalist and writer N. Khalezin, accompanied by a DJ, tells his semi-autobiographical story about the start of the ‘revolution of jeans’ the counterculture in Minsk at the time when you couldn’t get jeans or music on vinyl. The jeans became a symbol for the opposition.