Belarus Free Theatre (BFT) is Europe’s most celebrated theatre company in exile. Its play Dogs of Europe, first performed underground in Minsk in 2019 and then again at London’s Barbican in 2022, comes to the Adelaide Festival 2-6 March. The play is based on a novel by Alhierd Bacharevič, which was banned in Belarus. Bacharevič will speak about Dogs of Europe in person in two events at Adelaide Festival’s Writers’ Week, ‘A Writer in Exile’ and ‘Russia Now and Then’.
The plot of Dogs of Europe moves from 2019 to 2049 and depicts a dystopian Europe divided by a wall, where Russia is expanding its zone of influence to become a dictatorial superstate in Europe’s backyard. The London premiere of the play coincided with the Russian invasion of Ukraine. So what started off, in the words of Belarus Free Theatre co-founder and director Nicolai Khalezin, as a ‘warning shot’ about the dangers of unchecked autocracy began to feel all too true.
