PUSSY RIOT
Pussy Riot: Riot Days i Værløse
“Art is changing the world” – Pussy Riot
Showet Riot Days er baseret på Maria Alyokhinas bog Riot Days – en fortælling om undertrykkelse, oprør og revolution – og er en blanding af teater, koncert og politisk happening.
Maria Alyokhinas er selv med på turneen, der bringer Riot Days verden rundt. Showet har modtaget en række internationale priser, herunder Herald Angel Award, Lustrum Award and Total Theatre Award of Edinburgh Festivals
Riot Days har kun planlagt ét stop på Sjælland, og det er altså den 26. september i Galaksen i Værløse.
Showet varer ca. 90 minutter uden pause og billetter koster 300 kr. inkl. gebyrer og garderobe.
AVOUT RIOT DAYS
Riot Days is a play based on the eponymous Pussy Riot’s Maria Alyokhina’s book. It’s a story of resistance, repression and revolution in a mixture of concert, rally, theatre and political happening.
The show has toured all over the world, it gave more than 200 performances in most of Europe, USA, Brazil, Australia and New Zealand and has received prestigious international awards, including Herald Angel Award, Lustrum Award and Total Theatre Award of Edinburgh Festivals.
Line Up 2023:
● Maria (Masha) Alyokhina – author, actress – Main Pussy Riot activist and voice of the collective, she was one of the Punk Prayer performers and for more than 3 years in prison.
● Diana Burkot (Kot) – singer, actress, electronics, drums
(Diana is one of the founding members of Pussy Riot, she was one of Punk Prayer performers in the Cathedral)
● Olga Borisova – actress, singer, Riot Days book editor
● Tasso Pletner – actress, singer, flute
Crew:
● Vasily Bogatov – video,
● Alexander Cheparukhin – producer, subtitles
ABOUT THE BOOK
A Maria Alyokhina’s riveting account of her years in Russia’s criminal system and of finding power in the most powerless of situations.
In February 2012 Pussy Riot performed a “punk prayer”, taking on the Orthodox church and its support for Vladimir Putin’s authoritarian regime. For this, they were charged with “organized hooliganism”. That trial became an international cause.
Alyokhina’s two-year sentence launched a bitter struggle against the Russian prison system and an iron-willed refusal to be deprived of her humanity.
RIOT DAYS – BACKGROUND:
In December 2016 Maria Alyokhina and music producer Alexander Cheparukhin started a new project – PUSSY RIOT performs RIOT DAYS – a play based on Alyokhina’s book “RIOT DAYS” (was to be published in summer 2017 by Penguin Books in the US in autumn 2017 By Metropolitan Books). Worldwide publications followed as far as Japan and Australia!
The project is produced by Alexander Cheparukhin and directed by Yury Muravitsky – of the leading Russian theatre directors, and winner of the “Golden Mask” annual Russian theatre contract.
“Riot Days” is performed worldwide. The German premiere was in September 2017 in Frankfurt/Mousonturm. Since then they have played at about 30 concerts in Germany and Austria.
Recently, the European Court of Justice awarded damages to the three main protagonists. It is doubtful whether Putin will pay compensation for the imprisonment. The protests at the World Cup showed that the issue of human rights is just as topical as it was a few years ago. In the spring of 2021, Masha Alyokhina was put on electronic shackles. In 2021-2022, Maria Alyokhina spent more than a year in prison and under house arrest for posting on social media in support of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny, who was poisoned by Putin’s regime and subsequently imprisoned.
The Spring Tour 22 in Europe is one success story. After Masha’s escape, there was worldwide coverage, also in connection with the protest against Putin and the Ukraine war, triggered by an exclusive interview in the New York Times. Talk shows followed throughout Europe and in Germany the highlight was an interview with Ingo Zamparoni on Tagesthemen as well as contributions to N3, 3 Sat, Arte, TTT and private TV stations.
An important concern of the members of Pussy Riot is to support Ukraine.
In their program, the band calls for support for a children’s hospital in Kiev. They themselves donate the majority of their merchandise revenue to this hospital.
In 2023 they did 2 sold out shows in Icelands national theatre, will go to US to receive the Guthrie Award in early May 2023, and then perform 15 shows in Europe
More info on : https://riotdays.com/
PUSSY RIOT BACKGROUND
The political situation has become more and more restrictive in Russia in 2022 and it is therefore important to give voice to the protest of the PUSSY RIOT collective, especially abroad. National critical media are banned, FB and IG are now also closed in Russia, and protesting only with the book “War and Peace” in hand leads to a four-week prison sentence. Stalinist methods have taken hold in Russia and for many critical voices the only option is to flee or go to prison. Support for the protest is thus becoming more and more urgent for us. Pussy Riot already warned of this 10 years ago, which has now come to pass, and her most ardent wish is that all oil and gas imports be stopped so that sustained pressure can finally be exerted on Putin.
On their tour through Europe, which started in May 22 and will continue until November, they will play at various venues such as the Elbphilharmonie in Hamburg, Casa da Musica Porto or the ART Basel or the Theaterspektakel Zurich as well as festivals, clubs and theatres. PUSSY RIOT is a Russian protest art collective based in Moscow. Founded in March 2011, it had a variable membership of about 11 women. The group staged unauthorised provocative guerrilla punk rock performances in unusual public places, made into music videos and posted on the internet. The collective’s lyrical themes included feminism, LGBT rights and opposition to Russian President Vladimir Putin, whom the group viewed as a dictator. These themes also included Putin’s links to the leadership of the Russian Orthodox Church.
They gained global notoriety 10 years ago when five members of the group staged a performance in Moscow’s Cathedral of Christ the Saviour in 2012. The group’s actions were deemed sacrilegious by Orthodox clergy and eventually stopped by church security officials. The women said their protest was directed at Orthodox Church leaders’ support for Putin during his election campaign. On March 2012, three of the group members Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, Maria Alyokhina and Ekaterina Samutsevich were arrested and charged with hooliganism. On 17 August 2012, the three members were convicted of “hooliganism motivated by religious hatred” and each was sentenced to two years in prison. On 10 October, following an appeal, Samutsevich was released on parole and her sentence was suspended. The sentences of the other two women were upheld.
The trial and sentence attracted a lot of attention and criticism, especially in the West. The case was embraced by human rights groups, including Amnesty International, which called the women prisoners of conscience and a number of prominent entertainers. After serving 21 months, Tolokonnikova and Alyokhina were released on 23 December 2013 after the State Duma (Russian parliament) approved an amnesty. After their release, Tolokonnikova and Alyokhina and some other members performed as Pussy Riot during the Winter Olympics in Sochi, where they were attacked with whips and pepper spray by Cossacks who were used as guards
2014-2016 Pussy Riot activities:
(Alyokhina and Tolokonninkova – together or separately, with different line-ups), recorded and released several videos: “Putin will teach you to love the Motherland”, “I can’t breathe” (named after the last words Eric Garner said as New York City police held him to the ground in a chokehold), “Chaika”, “Organs”, “Make America Great Again”.
In 2016, Maria Alyokhina successfully debuted as the lead of critically acclaimed “Burning Doors” – a Belarus Free Theatre play, a story of three artists who became political prisoners in Russia: Maria Alyokhina, Petr Pavlensky and Oleg Sentsov. In “Burning Doors”, Alyokhina played the UK (for two months), Italy and Australia. US tour of “Burning Doors” should happen in 2017.
BEMÆRK: Overtøj og større tasker må ikke medbringes i salen men skal afleveres i den bemandede garderobe, hvor vores frivillige personale passer på det for dig hele aftenen. Garderoben er inkluderet i din billet.
Glas, flasker eller andre farlige genstande må ikke medbringes i salen.
Der vil være vagter til stede, som kan bede om at tjekke, at du som gæst ikke har medbragt farlige genstande i lommer eller tasker.
“New revolutionary electronic punk opera”
SYDNEY MORNING HERALD
“It’s impossible to look away. Powerful and exhilarating”
THE GUARDIAN
“Swaggering, throbbing gig. Clever and enthralling”
THE TIMES
“Full of fierce, rousing joy, free of scripted cues … Poetic, razor-sharp and disarmingly witty … Riot Days convinced me that gigs still have the power to move the masses”
CHARLOTTE RICHARDSON ANDREWS
“Darkly humorous, while intelligent lyrics paint a bleak representation of years of suppressed activism”
LOUD AND QUIET
“Stunning audio-visual experience … Inventive, passionate, darkly funny in parts, twitching with energy and intelligent defiance and anger and yet full of compassion this is a moral tale for our times … Delivered with an intense brilliance”
LOUDER THAN WAR
“Far from being a conventional gig, it is instead a hard-hitting, punk spirited and encapsulating piece of art theatre”
THE ARGUS
“It went down a storm”
BRIGHTON NEWS
“There is no doubt that the absolutely obscene actions that take place on stage, containing insults of Russia and its leadership, have nothing to do with culture or art”
RUSSIAN EMBASSY IN SWITZERLAND