2 - A Time for Theatre: Courage and the Belarus Free Theatre

Summary

What we are seeing when bodies assemble on the street, in the square, or in other public venues is the exercise—one might call it performative— of the right to appear, a bodily demand for a more livable set of lives.

Judith Butler, Notes Toward a Performative Theory of Assembly, 2015

But now […] What good is theatre?

Pavel Haradnizky, Courage, 2021

Late in the documentary film Courage directed by Aliaksei Paluyan, actor Pavel Haradnizky, who has been cleaning his apartment and contemplating emigration, thinks about the role of theatre in the midst of the political protests that erupted in Belarus following the 2020 Presidential elections. He considers the state of Belarus, saying it is no longer just a dictatorship, but a “complete tyranny.”

Back when times were more “liberal,” we could express truths between the lines. But now […] what good is theatre? […] There's no time for theatre in Belarus right now. When the situation changes, the need for theatre, contemplation and thoughts will rise again. That's why theatre won't disappear.

Filmed amidst the turmoil surrounding the elections, the documentary captures the shifting emotional states and trauma of alienation through the eyes of three actors of the Belarus Free Theatre. Despite Haradnizky's skepticism about the usefulness of performance and art in such a crisis, the film itself makes the case for the power and value of such work. Throughout the unnarrated film, built on a series of fragmented scenes of daily life and footage from scenes of mass protest, Paluyan also depicts segments from Belarus Free Theatre performances. Glimpses of these plays, themselves built on documentary events of the Belarusian past, reveal the ways in which these performances invited audiences to commune, remain engaged, remember, mourn, and heal. While the performances help mobilize communities, they also make lives grievable that the State otherwise designates as disposable. The film and the performances it features strip away romantic notions of revolution while portraying the ongoing struggle for human rights, dignity, and democracy in Belarus. This chapter analyzes both the film and the theatre performances it captures as part of documenting the resistance. Looking both at the documentary material depicted along with the aesthetic choices of presentation in their historical contexts, the chapter reinforces the particular value of theatre in a time of crisis.