La MaMa Stands With Belarus

On the evening of September 9, 2020, exactly one month after the elections in Belarus, cultural organizations around the world joined Belarus Free Theatre’s Global Artistic Campaign in Solidarity with Belarus by lighting up our facade (with help from CultureHub's Sangmin Chae and Billy Clark).

Since the election, Belarus has witnessed its biggest protests in modern history, as the Belarusian people have defied threats of a government crackdown to continue protesting the falsified election results. This weekend more than 100,000 people filled Independence Avenue in Minsk calling for Alexander Lukashenko to step down, with marches also taking place in 33 cities across the country, including Brest, Vitebsk and Grodno. The EU has stated that it does not recognize Lukashenko as Belarus’s president and is moving forward with targeted sanctions on members of his regime.

#StandWithBelarus 

#ImWithTheBanned

Reviews are IN for Belarus Free Theatre's BURNING DOORS!

“bruising exploration of the dynamics of resistance — the kind that occurs in the intersection of art and politics...Galvanizing...The astonishment of “Burning Doors” — conceived and staged by the troupe founders and artistic directors (in exile), Nikolai Khalezin and Natalia Koliada — is its ability to translate political rage and impotence into an art of indirection that is often as complex as it is powerful.” 

- New York Times

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“Burning Doors is the most essential piece of political theater New York has seen in a long, long time.” 

- TheaterMania

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“a smart, smoldering, physically brutal piece of theater...The climax of Burning Doors is among the most brutal physical sequences I have ever seen onstage.” 

- NY Magazine/Vulture.com 

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“Burning Doors is intense and profoundly physical alternative theatre...a visceral and intellectual evening you will not forget.” 

- Front Row Center 

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“It is one of the most sensory experiences you'll ever have in a theater.” 

- Yes Broadway   

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"Belarus Free Theatre creates poetry out of brutal reality, with the breathtaking physical capacity of its performers sending an urgent and powerful message that's a wakeup call for whoever is willing to listen." Theatre Is Easy

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“absolutely thrilling….Be Brave. Go and see Belarus Free Theatre’s Burning Doors at La MaMa’s Ellen Stewart Theatre.” 

- StageBuddy    

La MaMa presents

BURNING DOORS

Devised and performed by Belarus Free Theatre
Directed by Nicolai Khalezin and Natalia Kaliada
With Maria Alyokhina from Pussy Riot

October 13 - 22, 2017

10 Performances Only!

Ellen Stewart Theatre 

66 East 4th Street

(between Bowery & Second Avenue)

New York, NY 10003

Tickets: $30 Adults; $25 Students/Seniors

For Tickets & Info: CLICK HERE

NY Times Fall Preview

Thanks to The New York Times for featuring La MaMa in their Fall Preview issue!  Come see Charles Ludlam's CONQUEST OF THE UNIVERSE OR WHEN QUEENS COLLIDE directed by Everett Quinton, the New York premiere of BURNING DOORS by Belarus Free Theatre, The world premiere of PANORAMA PT. 1 by Motus Theatre and The Great Jones Repertory Company and so much more this season at La MaMa.

And you can get $10 tickets to ALL shows at La MaMa with an ETC Membership.  CLICK HERE to learn more.

Video Preview: Belarus Free Theater's BURNING DOORS

  Belarus Free Theatre presents Burning Doors from La MaMa on Vimeo.

Where do you belong when your government suppresses your basic right to expression? 

What do you do when your government imprisons you for making art? 

How would you survive one of the most brutal prison systems in the world? 

Belarus Free Theatre combines forces with Pussy Riot’s Maria Alyokhina, who makes her New York stage debut, in a searing performance on how art persists under oppression. Through the prism of persecuted artists who will not be silenced, Burning Doors reveals how artists living under dictatorship illuminate the knife-edge of complacency in democratic societies reminding us of the true cost of freedom and dangers of inertia.

"Visceral. A brutally physical production. An analogue for the ritualised humiliation by Russian authorities."
– Time Out

"Savage political satire. Performed with blazing energy and commitment."
– Financial Times

"An extraordinary show. Noisy, taboo-busting and brutal to behold."
- A Younger Theatre

"A fiery work of protest theatre that fuses brutality and poetry, philosophy and irreverent satire."

~The Age (Australia)

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La MaMa presents

BURNING 

DOORS

Devised and performed by Belarus Free Theatre
Directed by Nicolai Khalezin and Natalia Kaliada
With Maria Alyokhina from Pussy Riot

October 13 - 22, 2017

10 Performances Only!

Ellen Stewart Theatre 

66 East 4th Street

(between Bowery & Second Avenue)

New York, NY 10003

Tickets: $30 Adults; $25 Students/Seniors

For Tickets & Info: CLICK HERE

Press for La MaMa's 56th Season Announcement

La MaMa to Host Belarus Free Theater Next Season

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La MaMA's New Season Will Explore Resistance, Appropriation, and Representation

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Belarus Free Theatre Featuring Pussy Riot, Charles Ludlam Festival and More Slated for La MaMa's 56th Season

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La MaMa Announces Programming for 56th Season

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To see the full season lineup: CLICK HERE!

The Reviews Are In for TRASH CUISINE!

“highly effective...raw fare for strong stomachs....Belarus Free Theater has emerged as one of the bravest and most inspired underground troupes on the planet...Its presence has provided a necessary and welcome reminder that theater can indeed be a revolutionary art...it’s hard not to admire its pure theatrical imagination.” 

Ben Brantley, The New York Times

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"theatergoers always on the lookout for something they've never seen before are guaranteed to find that here." 

- Huffington Post

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"The show thrillingly raises important questions about the modern state of capital punishment through a well-choreographed barrage of sights, sounds, and smells...Every member of this eight-person ensemble fearlessly dives into the production, to chilling result...this unique and rigorous political theater is not to be missed." 

- TheaterMania

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"a beautiful exploration of human craving and excess; the desire to indulge our mouths not so different from the urge to whet our aggression." 

- NY Theatre Review

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“Exiles from Europe’s last true dictatorship, the Belarus Free Theatre delivers a knockout punch with its monumental “Trash Cuisine”...Dark, moving, and unforgettable, Belarus Free Theatre is one for the history books.” 

- Theatre Reviews Limited

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"TRASH CUISINE is political theatre done imaginatively... These very talented, international cast members are a skillful, physical group. And the live music was wonderfully matched. This is a noble use of theatre to send a critical message." 
- ELJ Arts

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"Trash Cuisine, the latest play by Belarus Free Theater, explores capital punishment using stark, memorable images."
- Theater Pizzazz

"Execution by beheading, hanging, stoning, beating, hacking, electrocution, and firing squad are explored in the Belarus Free Theatre’s elegant multimedia performance"
- The New Yorker

La MaMa presents

TRASH CUISINE

Devised and performed by Belarus Free Theatre
Directed by Nicolai Khalezin | Written by Nicolai Khalezin & Natalia Kaliada
Concept, stage direction, costumes, lights by Nicolai Khalezin & Natalia Kaliada

A continued collaboration with The Public Theater in support of Belarus Free Theatre.

Running time: 90 minutes | Performed in English

Now - May 17, 2015

The Ellen Stewart Theatre

66 East 4th Street

(between Bowery and Second Avenue)

New York, NY 10003

Tickets: $30 Previews (4/25 & 4/26); $40 Adults; $35 Students/Seniors

For Tickets and Info: CLICK HERE

TheaterMania on the return of Belarus Free Theatre

TheaterMania's Zachery Stewart spoke with Natalia Kaliada on Belarus Free Theatre's return to New York with TRASH CUISINE, their first show in English.

"Trash Cuisine has also been informed by the fact that Belarus is the last country in Europe with the death penalty. The show, which was a hit at the 2013 Edinburgh Fringe Festival, uses various national cuisines in order to explicate local flavors of violence. Kaliada incredulously asks, "If the government shows the people of a particular country that they can kill, why shouldn't I, as a citizen, kill someone if the government says it's OK?"

Read the full article: HERE

La MaMa presents

TRASH 
CUISINE

Devised and performed by Belarus Free Theatre
Directed by Nicolai Khalezin | Written by Nicolai Khalezin & Natalia Kaliada
Concept, stage direction, costumes, lights by Nicolai Khalezin & Natalia Kaliada

A continued collaboration with The Public Theater in support of Belarus Free Theatre.

Running time: 90 minutes | Performed in English

April 28 - May 17, 2015

The Ellen Stewart Theatre

66 East 4th Street

(between Bowery and Second Avenue)

New York, NY 10003

Tickets: $30 Previews (4/25 & 4/26); $40 Adults; $35 Students/Seniors

For Tickets and Info: CLICK HERE

Day 9: Countdown to Trash Cuisine - Natalia Kaliada explains 'Give a Body Back'

Countdown until Belarus Free Theatre returns to La MaMa. 

Trash Cuisine runs April 25th - May 17th, 2015. Buy Tickets: HERE

Day 9: Belarus Free Theatre Co-Founder Natalia Kaliada explains the Give a Body Back protest campaign.

From Belarus Free Theatre's Website:

Belarus is the last country in Europe that has not yet abandoned the death penalty. Bodies of those executed are not returned to families. Cases of political kidnapping and murder are not investigated, and today there are 14 political prisoners in Belarusian jails, and dozens who are not rehabilitated.

Natalia Kaliada, Nicolai Khalezin, Irinia Bogdanova and Free Belarus Now staged a peaceful protest against the human rights violations in Belarus, shedding light on the hundreds of people who have “disappeared” or been executed.

Petition to end the death penalty in Belarus - CLICK BELOW:

Follow the countdown to TRASH CUISINE's first performance!

The groundbreaking Belarus Free Theatre bring their highly acclaimed TRASH CUISINE to The Ellen Stewart Theatre at La MaMa, in continued collaboration with The Public Theater.

You can follow the countdown on Storify.

Watch the first three entries here:

  Trash Cuisine Trailer from La MaMa on Vimeo.

I Stand with Belarus Free Theatre from La MaMa on Vimeo.

Casey LaBow on Trash Cuisine from La MaMa on Vimeo.

La MaMa presents

TRASH 
CUISINE

Devised and performed by Belarus Free Theatre
Directed by Nicolai Khalezin | Written by Nicolai Khalezin & Natalia Kaliada
Concept, stage direction, costumes, lights by Nicolai Khalezin & Natalia Kaliada

A continued collaboration with The Public Theater in support of Belarus Free Theatre.

Running time: 90 minutes | Performed in English

April 28 - May 17, 2015

The Ellen Stewart Theatre

66 East 4th Street

(between Bowery and Second Avenue)

New York, NY 10003

Tickets: $30 Previews (4/25 & 4/26); $40 Adults; $35 Students/Seniors

For Tickets and Info: CLICK HERE

Spring Season @ La MaMa Announced!

The Spring Season at La MaMa has been announced and it includes:

DANIEL ALEXANDER JONES

WITNESS RELOCATION/CHUCK MEE/

HEATHER CHRISTIAN

DANE TERRY

BELARUS FREE THEATRE

LA MAMA MOVES! DANCE FESTIVAL 2015

WINSOME BROWN

and MANY MORE!!

Check out the full Spring schedule!

CLICK HERE

Tickets now on sale, including 10@$10 Tickets!