Gwen in Purgatory

31 July - 19 September

Namatjira

25 September - 7 November

The Bougainville Photoplay Project

9 November - 28 November

The Diary of a Madman

4 December - 6 February

A Belarus Free Theatre production presented by Company B and Sydney Festival

...tightly framed, dark and dynamic The Sydney Morning Herald

This production stages Harold Pinter's famous 2005 Nobel Prize speech with a theatricality that is fresh, direct and powerful. It reminds us what a dramatic masterpiece that speech was... The Australian

To view Harold Pinter's Nobel Prize speech click here

1st Season Dates
7 January — 11 January

2nd Season Dates
28 January — 1 February

Devised and Performed by
Belarus Free Theatre

Based on the works of
Harold Pinter

The Belarus Free Theatre doesn’t officially exist. It sprang to life in 2005 in response to the authoritarian rule of President Alexander Lukashenko, who has viciously suppressed freedom of expression and political opposition.

Company members have been evicted, beaten and arrested. To see them perform in Belarus you put your name on a secret list and wait for an SMS telling you a time and place on the city outskirts. Then you’re bussed to a makeshift theatre in a basement, a café, even a cemetery.

Being Harold Pinter is wild, anarchic theatre at its purest. Extracts from Pinter’s plays and his Nobel Prize speech transform into a harrowing account of artistic and political repression in Europe’s last dictatorship. Funny and menacing, this is a powerful instance of life imitating art.

In August 2007 the entire cast and audience were arrested mid-performance. Company B and the Sydney Festival are proud to give the Belarus Free Theatre a home for two weeks.

It’s an extraordinary event… proves that poor theatre can often deliver the richest dramatic experience The Guardian
Is the Belarus “Free Theatre” the bravest theatre company in the world? London Daily Telegraph

Performed in Russian with surtitles.