From Les Enfants Terribles theatre company, the creators of Olivier nominated immersive smash hit Alice’s Adventures Underground, comes Inside Pussy Riot – a story that needs to be
experienced to be understood.
Coinciding with the Saatchi Gallery’s Art Riot: Post Soviet Actionism exhibition and presented in
association with The Tsukanov Family Foundation, Inside Pussy Riot is an immersive experience, about Nadya Tolokonnikova‘s tribulations as the founder of Pussy Riot, the post punk, feminist art collective who stuck two fingers up at the Russian system and suffered the consequences.
To mark the 100th anniversary of the Russian Revolution, audiences are encouraged to pull on
the balaclava and stand up for what they believe in. Stand in the dock as Pussy Riot and live the
realities of incarceration through this exhilarating theatre experience. Would you sacrifice
everything for the sake of a punk prayer for a freer world?
The immersive world of Inside Pussy Riot seeks to remind audiences what actually happened
and how one’s basic human rights and freedom of expression can be taken away at any point.
Nadya Tolokonnikova comments, Inside Pussy Riot shows you what prison, prosecution of political activists and police oppression looks like. It also reminds you what democracy, on the
contrary, looks like. And when I say ‘democracy’, I mean real democracy, which is about direct
participation of citizens. Inside Pussy Riot plunges you into the totality of an authoritarian
system – if you do not choose real democracy and participation, authoritarianism chooses you.
Writer and Artistic Director of Les Enfants Terribles Oliver Lansley comments, We’re so excited
to be collaborating with Pussy Riot on this experience. Our plan is to provoke, challenge and
make our audiences understand the experience Pussy Riot went through whilst also encouraging them to ask important questions about their own beliefs and what they might do if they found themselves in a similar situation. Freedom of speech is one of the most important contemporary
values we have and one we often take for granted.
Co-producer Alexandrina Markvo (Bird&Carrot) comments, The story of Pussy Riot exemplifies
the fight for freedom of speech and expression in an authoritarian society. It is a story that needs
to be told today. While the setting for the show is Russia, this situation is all too familiar in many countries today. I hope this blisteringly political production will also serve as a powerful reminder to citizens of democratic countries to cherish and defend their freedoms. I am very excited as a producer to bring this immersive performance to the London audience in one of Europe’s leading
art spaces- Saatchi Gallery.
On 17th August 2012, Pussy Riot’s Tolokonnikova was prosecuted for performing 35 seconds of a
song called Virgin Mary Put Putin Away – a direct attack on the Russian Orthodox Church’s
unequivocal support for Vladimir Putin – inside Moscow’s Cathedral of Christ the Saviour. She
was convicted of ‘hooliganism motivated by religious hatred’ and was sentenced to two years of
imprisonment, where she was faced with solitary confinement and humiliation, including
regular forced gynaecological examinations.
With heightened theatricality, the production exposes the horrors of Pussy Riot’s experience,
and shows that what happened to them can happen to anyone.
We are all Pussy Riot.
Inside Pussy Riot plays 14th November – 24th December 2017 at Saatchi Gallery, Duke of York’s HQ, King’s Road, London SW3 4RY
