Power and Protest: An interview with the Belarus Free Theatre

Often called “Europe’s last dictator”, Aleksandr Lukashenko has been President of Belarus since 1994, frequently holding dubious elections and referenda to give his regime the veneer of democracy. Protests after the most recent contest in August, in which writers and artists were prominent, brought international attention back to Lukashenko’s governance, but the Belarus Free Theatre have been making work at home and abroad about oppression and censorship in the country for the last fifteen years. This month on Resonance 104.4fm, Juliet spoke to the Theatre’s co-founder Natalia Kaliada, in exile in London, and Svetlana Sugako, the Theatre’s co-manager in Minsk, about their work, the regime and the recent protests. Please note: this episode was recorded via Skype, with Svetlana in Belarus, so apologies for the occasional lapses in sound quality. A full list of references for the programme can be found via our Patreon at www.patreon.com/suite212, and is available to $3 subscribers – our theme music is 'Aus' by Fennesz.