Trash Cuisine & Minsk 2011: Two Plays by Belarus Free Theatre: Two Plays by Belarus Free Theatre

Two plays from Belarus Free Theatre, an underground company that performs uncensored work in Europe's last bastion of dictatorship. These two plays, which have been performed to acclaim around the world, mark the first publication in a partnership between Belarus Free Theatre and Oberon Books designed to raise the profile of one of the world's bravest and boldest theater companies.

Trash Cuisine
Written by Nicolai Khalezin and Natalia Kaliada, Devised by Belarus Free Theatre
Winner of the Impatto Totale Award 2013 at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, 2013.

Banned from performing in their own country, Belarus Free Theatre serve up food, music, dance and Shakespeare as they share true stories from inmates, executioners, human rights lawyers and families of the executed. This provocative and urgent play pierces the imagination with moments of the darkest humour as it challenges capital punishment in our contemporary world, where 95 countries still carry out the death penalty.

Minsk 2011 (A Reply to Kathy Acker)
Devised and written by Belarus Free Theatre, Dramaturgy by Vladimir Shcherban

If scars are sexy, Minsk must be the sexiest city in the world...Strip clubs, underground raves and gay pride parades pulse beneath the surface of a city, where sexuality is twisted by oppression. A love letter to a home that exiles those willing to fight for it, Minsk, 2011 celebrates and mourns a land that has lost its way.

"Polemic, however, is not the method of Belarus Free Theatre. As anyone who saw Being Harold Pinter will know, they make their points through an exuberant inventiveness... remarkable." Guardian

"Beautiful and brutal... Like many of the richest moments in theater, this one involves very simple elements: black ink, a long roll of brown paper and a naked woman." New York Times

"Compelling, horrific and, in its delicate balance of the sweet and distastefully sour, quite wonderful." Londonist

"A truly stunning and engaging piece of powerful, emotive political theatre that fires the soul." One Stop Arts

Natalia Kaliada is a co-artistic director and producer of Belarus Free Theatre alongside her husband Nicolai. Natalia has been detained three times for participation in peaceful political and theatrical activities. Her father, Professor Andrei Kaliada, was dismissed from the Academy of Arts for cooperation with Belarus Free Theatre and was physically attacked as a result; the criminal investigation case on it was closed down.

Nicolai Khalezin is a co-artistic director of Belarus Free Theatre, playwright and journalist. Nicolai was arrested four times for participation in peaceful political protest rallies and theatrical activities. His plays are forbidden from being staged in Belarus.

Belarus Free Theatre (BFT) was founded on March 30, 2005 by husband-and-wife team Nicolai Khalezin and Natalia Kaliada, and joined shortly afterwards by Vladimir Shcherban. Three of them together formed a unique aesthetics of the BFT. Their Belarus performances are held secretly, in small private apartments, the location of which, due to the risk of persecution, must constantly be changed. BFT is a collaborative company using the experience and expertise of all members as an artistic resource. Under impossible conditions BFT continues to produce great theatre that is recognised internationally; in 2011 it was nominated for the Unique Theatrical Experience Drama Desk Award for Being Harold Pinter and was awarded the prestigious off-Broadway OBIE award for Being Harold Pinter, Discover Love and Zone of Silence.