Police raid “Free Theater” performances
On
8 December the police paid another visit to the Belarus “Free
Theater” in Minsk. As
the head of the
“Free Theater”
Mikalai Khalezin told charter97.org “policemen came as the day
before. They stopped the performance “Zone of Silence” and put
down the
passport data
of all the actors and spectators”.
According to the
witnesses, more than 60 people gathered for the performance.
Belarus
Free Theater’s
stage director Uladzimir Shcherban commented on yet another police
visit in the following way:
“That is a characteristic of the
incumbent authorities – the worse is the economic situation in the
country, the more there are repression against artists. But regarding
the BFT’s troupe and our spectators it is a hopeless case as for
the eight years that the theater
has been operating we have developed a stable immunity. This is why
despite all the efforts of the authorities to spoil the upcoming New
Year I want to state that we are preparing a
couple
of
surprises
for our spectators. And to those people in the uniform who have tried
to wreck our performances two days in a row, I would like to remind
that they are first of all people and would recommend them
to
watch these performances. That is because we cannot be remade but
they still have a chance to
change”.
We
should
remind that the
day before
policemen again broke in the premises hired by “Free Theater”
under the pretext of being called by the neighbors. The policemen put
down the passport data of the theater’s
manager Sviatlana Suhaka
and demanded her to prepare the passport data of all the actors.
