Belarus Free Theatre returns to New York

Belarus Free Theatre (BFT)--unable to safely return to Belarus, Decidedly UnFree--continues its sojourn around America. La MaMa and The Public Theater have brought the company back to La MaMa’s Ellen Stewart Theatre where it exemplifies the artistic and political courage that Stewart welcomed and championed for decades. In a time of widespread social upheaval in many lands, the travails of China’s detained provocateur Ai Weiwei and the exiled Belarusians remind us of the critical, if dangerous, role artists play in speaking truth to power.

L-r: Oleg Sidorchik, Yana Rusakevich, Pavel Gorodnitski
and Marina Yurevich in Zone of Silence. (Photo: Joan Marcus)

Last evening, BFT presented one of its three repertory pieces, Zone of Silence, at La MaMa, directed by Vladimir Shcherban and created by Schcherban with BFT founders Natalia Koliada and Nikolai Khalezin. The piece runs for 2-1/2 hours with one intermission. Spoken in Russian and Belarusian, much of the sense of it is hobbled by the projection of English supertitles too high over the heads of the actors during the first two chapters, making it hard for English-speakers to both watch the bodies of the talented performers and follow their essential narratives. Interestingly, the supertitles for “Chapter 3. Numbers” rest across a lower level of the white backdrop. Thank goodness, because you really shouldn’t miss a word.

“Chapter 1. Childhood Legends” opens with one actor erasing a jumble of troubling images (Nazi swastika, armored tank and more) from a chalkboard mounted on the backdrop. The stories that follow, though, reflect the inability to erase the trauma of experiencing brutality--authoritarian indoctrination, emotional abuse, separation from an imprisoned parent. BFT’s performers bring us these nightmarish situations in satiric-archetypal forms with dark intensity. The aggressor, the conformist, the victim and the rebel are all embodied in physical theater that owes much to a child’s love of costumes, props, play-acting and impersonation.

Yana Rusakevich in Zone of Silence (Photo: Joan Marcus)

 “Chapter 2. Diverse” forms a collage of personalities and stories of everyday Belarusians--a nation of people apparently diverse enough to include at least one Black gay man, a guy we later see gazing out at us from a video clip as if to prove his existence. On stage, though, the incredible Pavel Gorodnitski portrays this fellow with an outsized, crackling energy that--I swear--bridges the physical gap between the actor and those confounded supertitles. When Gorodnitski leans into his impersonation, you somehow also take in the written words (and, what’s more, you really want to). But how? He’s not even that tall! What an illusion!

These first two chapters provide a fair introduction to a troupe that, in its homeland under the regime of strongman Alexander Lukashenko, must perform in a kind of theatrical Underground Railroad. But “Chapter 3. Numbers” rips the gloves off. BFT and its now better integrated supertitles tell all.

Did you know that the Nazis wiped out one-third of the Belarusian population? Or that 72% of Belarusians find it difficult to define the word ‘democracy,’ that the average salary is $350 per month, and that every 4th Belarusian suffers a mental disorder? This chapter--the most physically-oriented of this physical theater triplet--opens with Gorodnitski, Oleg Sidorchik and Denis Tarasenko dressed in what might be their best, if misshapen and rumpled, suits and equipped with homely washboard, accordion and spoons to make a little folk music. Set against imagery of perky folkdancing (Marina Yurevich) and ecstatic, glowing pregnancy (Yana Rusakevich), which complete our stereotypes of Eastern Europe, are the alarming stories that unfiltered numbers tell--about the prevalence of miscarriage, divorce, the rapid dwindling of the population, the litany of the disappeared. All forbidden truths, spoken outright by citizens who now dare not try to return to their loved ones at home.

However, BFT chooses to leave us with a different and profoundly moving impression. The backdrop fills with name after name of celebrities, artists, esteemed scientists and others, some well-known, others more obscure, who share Belarusian origin or heritage: Marc Chagall, Kirk Douglas, Ralph Lauren, Harrison Ford, Larry King, Menachem Begin and many, many more.

Last night, when the actors took their bows, they looked as if they’d run a marathon, physically spent and emotionally raw. One could imagine questions hanging in the air: When can we go home? When will we go home to freedom and dignity?

Belarus Free Theatre at La MaMa’s Ellen Stewart Theatre now through May 15. For complete program information and ticketing, click here.

La MaMa’s Ellen Stewart Theatre
66 East 4th Street (between Second Avenue and The Bowery), Manhattan
(directions)