The People Woke Up

Along with Libereco, The Anglo-Belarusian Society, the Association of Belarusians in Great Britain and the People’s Embassy of Belarus in Scotland, we present the world premiere of a new script that tells the stories of people whose lives were changed forever in Belarus in 2020. Following the rigged election where Alexander Lukashenko extended his 27-year presidency still further, hundreds of thousands of Belarusians went out onto the streets to demonstrate and protest. This resulted in the most widespread and violent crackdown in Lukashenko’s reign, with thousands of peaceful protestors arrested and many tortured and killed at the hands of the security forces.

This new work tells the true stories of some of the people, in their own words, who were caught up in these tumultuous events and the impacts that are still felt today.