The People Woke Up: The 2020 Revolution in Belarus

Artistic Director of ice&fire, Christine Bacon, has said: “While the protests across Belarus attracted the attention of the world in August 2020, the cameras have now moved on. However, the people of Belarus continue to resist and risk their lives with the aim of removing the Lukashenko regime so a new nation can be built. With this new script, we invite audiences to listen to stories from the people at the heart of this struggle and ask themselves what they can do in solidarity with the people of Belarus.”

Irina McLean from The People’s Consulate of Belarus in Scotland said: “Sergey Tichanousky – 18 years of imprisonment. Aliaksandr Ivulin – 2 years of imprisonment. Maria Kolesnikova – 11 years of imprisonment. A vlogger. A sports journalist and footballer. A musician. Not criminals but citizens of THEIR country, who want it to be set free of pain, absurd autocracy and dictatorship. It is our pain. Every Belarusian feels it and this amazing opportunity to share it with others should help us to heal. This production will help us to tell our story. The story of our fight.”

Thom Dibdin from AllinEdinburgh Theatre said: “Despite the stories of brutality and abuses, the four accounts have a warmth about them, a love for a modest, landlocked country without significant peaks or lakes. An agrarian economy content to be be left alone. A people who are not looking for bloodshed – which, as one account wryly comments, might be why they lost the revolution. It adds up to a compelling piece of political theatre. The stories of four people who didn’t start out as being particularly political, but who got caught up in the injustices of the system around them and who were criminalised for standing up for the truth.”