One year ago, Congress defunded public media. Now that we're 100% community funded, please become a sustaining member or increase your existing membership today.
This is an archival story that predates current editorial management.
This archival content was written, edited, and published prior to LAist's acquisition by its current owner, Southern California Public Radio ("SCPR"). Content, such as language choice and subject matter, in archival articles therefore may not align with SCPR's current editorial standards. To learn more about those standards and why we make this distinction, please click here.
Banned at Home: Belarus Free Theatre Comes to REDCAT
Belarus Free Theatre | Photo: Courtesy of REDCAT
by Lyle Zimskind
Banned in its own country, its participating artists imprisoned and removed from their jobs, the underground Belarus Free Theatre troupe challenges the repressive powers of “Europe’s last dictatorship” with clandestine productions staged in private apartments, bars, and other inconspicuous locations around the nation’s capital city of Minsk. On occasions when the Belarusian KGB has been tipped off to these performances, state police raids have culminated in the arrests of company members as well as those who just came to see the show.
No such threat will presumably face Los Angeles audiences who venture into Disney Hall’s REDCAT theater at 8:30 p.m. over the next three evenings for the company’s production of Discover Love, based on true stories of political intimidation and violence against dissidents in Belarus and around the globe.
Inspired by the darkly comic protest plays of Vaclav Havel, the Belarus Free Theatre’s co-founder and artistic director Nikolai Halezin has described himself as a “freedom fighter.” And in a recent New York Times interview, Tom Stoppard has observed that “there is always a background of apprehension” in the group’s work, “a constant state of needing to draw on reserves of courage that we really don’t know about and can’t really imagine.”
Tickets for the opportunity to bear witness to this uniquely theatrical brand of political courage are available via the REDCAT website or at the box office.
Discover Love at REDCAT
Thurs.-Sat at 8:30 pm
General Admission Tickets: $20-$25
One year ago, Congress voted to defund public media, eliminating a critical $1.7 million from our budget every year going forward. But they couldn’t silence us, and we’re not going anywhere. LAist is now 100% community funded and that means we’re taking our future into our own hands and turning to you to keep local reporting strong.
You come to LAist because you want independent reporting and trustworthy local information. Our nonprofit newsroom doesn’t answer to shareholders looking to turn a profit. Instead, we answer to you and our communities. We are free to follow facts wherever they lead and to hold power to account without fear or favor. Our only loyalty is to our readers and listeners and our mission: to inform, engage, and strengthen Southern California’s communities.
If this story helped you, please become a monthly member today to help sustain this mission. It just takes 1 minute to donate below.
You come to LAist because you want independent reporting and trustworthy local information. Our nonprofit newsroom doesn’t answer to shareholders looking to turn a profit. Instead, we answer to you and our communities. We are free to follow facts wherever they lead and to hold power to account without fear or favor. Our only loyalty is to our readers and listeners and our mission: to inform, engage, and strengthen Southern California’s communities.
If this story helped you, please become a monthly member today to help sustain this mission. It just takes 1 minute to donate below.
Senior Vice President News, Editor in Chief
