‘Inside Pussy Riot’, Immersive Political Theatre Experience Coming To London Stage
Russian punk protest group Pussy Riot and London-based Theatre Company Les Enfants Terribles (Alice’s Adventures Underground) have announced that their immersive political theatre experience Inside Pussy Riot is set to open at a to-be-confirmed London venue in November 2017 for a limited six-week run.
The campaign, which will be crowd-funded, was launched via Kickstarter. Pussy Riot’s Nadya Tolokonnikova, a co-creator of the series, will take part in a selection of shows including the opening day.
The immersive program will aim to transport the audience into the journey Pussy Riot endured five years prior. At this time, they became a household name worldwide, after a staged punk rock demonstration in Moscow’s Cathedral of Christ in 2012 landed some of the all-female group’s members, including founder Tolokonnikova, in jail and charged with “hooliganism.” The protest of Russian president Vladimir Putin earned them a nearly two-year stint in prison, with Nadya serving 20 months, but the injustice of the incarceration achieved resounding support from a fast-growing global fan base.
The “wild,” Sleep No More-esque show will allow the audience to become a participant in their past ordeal, experiencing exactly what the group members went through during their imprisonment, from the original church performance, to the court trial and prison cells.
“We’re going to recreate Russian courtrooms, a real Russian labour colony, solitary confinement cells, priests who shout about banning abortions and many more absurd, but real-life things that exist in Russia today,” the Kickstarter explains. “The audience will learn what it means to be a political opponent in Russia today. We’ll take you on a journey from the cathedral altar deep into the vaults of the Kremlin itself. Hopefully, this is a journey that you’ll only have to make once in your life.”
The producer of the show, Alexandrina Markvo, founder of the London-based company Bird & Carrot, explains the inspiration behind the project as follows: “Our goal is not just to create a breakthrough piece of theatre, but to develop something that can promote the cause of human rights protection, educate people about the problems in Russian legal and judicial processes and give audiences an idea of how fragile our seemingly safe society actually is.”
Adds Les Enfants Terribles’ James Seager: “Creating an immersive and detailed world is an inherently expensive proposition but something we believe is important in order to truly transport audiences into a realistic environment that fully serves the Pussy Riot story. Now is a perfect time to remind audiences what actually happened and how one’s basic human rights and freedom of expression can be taken away at any point.”
As for the rewards for pledges? Fans can earn the appropriately-titled ‘Kremlin Stooge’ signed Pussy Riot original prints, ‘Riot 101’ – a famous Russian alphabet colouring book signed by Nadya – and ‘Kill the Sexist’, a friendly postcard sent to Vladimir Putin ahead of his 2018 campaign, and more.
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