BELARUS NEWS AND ANALYSIS

DATE:

23/08/2007

Belarusian Police Break Up Theater Performance

August 23, 2007 (RFE/RL) -- Police in Belarus forcibly disbanded a theater performance held on August 22 at a private house in the capital, Minsk, RFE/RL's Belarusian Service reported.

RFE/RL's Belarus Service reports that police officers detained the 50 people present, including the actors, directors, five theater professionals from France and the Netherlands, and several children.

The detainees were released four hours later.

The incident is the first reported case in Belarus of police breaking up a theater performance.

The play was staged by the Free Theater, an unregistered theater company that is banned from performing in Belarus. The troupe doesn't have its own premises and screens spectators before every performance.

Mikalay Khalezin, Free Theater's cofounder, said the French Foreign Ministry has been informed of the incident, as have British playwright Tom Stoppard and rock star Mick Jagger.

Stoppard, Jagger, and British playwright and Nobel Prize laureate Harold Pinter are among the many cultural luminaries to have thrown their weight behind the Free Theater. Stoppard had planned to attend the August 22 performance but canceled his visit at the last minute.

The Free Theater was performing "Eleven Vests," a play about violence by British playwright Edward Bond.

Source:

http://www.rferl.org/featuresarticle/2007/8/bb592da5-4b55-42e4-9d49-a35f68fbb113.html