Adelaide Festival. Belarus Free Theatre. Dunstan Playhouse. 4 Mar 2023
Anarchic and dangerously accurate. How prescient was Alhierd Bacharevič to write Dogs of Europe in 2017 and for the Belarus Free Theatre to bravely premier their derivative play in the capital Minsk in 2020. In February 2021, the real shooting war began. The Russian attack on Kyiv poured across the Belarusian border. Dogs of Europe is banned in Belarus and its author lives in exile.
Dogs of Europe deals with personal accountability in a dystopian totalitarian state. In only four years, Bacharevič’s vision of an expanded Russian empire aligned with China – set in 2049 - became an immediate post-pandemic threat.
President Lukachenko since 1994 has steadily deteriorated democracy in Belarus and allowed his country to be fully captured in a Russian orbit. Director Nicolai Khalezin and co-director Natalia Kaliada have held political asylum in the UK since 2011. In 2007, the entire company was arrested in the middle of a performance. All the players and creatives cannot return to their homeland. From the stage, they ended the performance displaying a banner of support for Ukraine.
Early in the play, we see typically lackadaisical but patriotic students in 2019 inter their hopes in a time capsule, but thirty years later, a gigantic wall slashes across Europe between the League of European States and a New Reich (expanded Russia). 2049 is a world of political menace and suspicion of Orwellian dimensions.
Dogs of Europe is a complicated three-hour extravaganza charged with absurdity and theatrical symbolism like a Wagnerian opera. It is a physical and audial feast of unending surprises and ideas with an undertone of sly wink-nod humour. How about what looks like a naval officer representing the State when Belarus is land-locked, or a giant ball of books falling like a meteor out of the sky? Exaggerated expressions often break into choral solidarity from composer Sergej Newsky or communal choreography designed by Maria Sazonova. Nicolai Khalezin’s set design is inventively versatile with constant interaction between people, objects and sometimes crazy and discombobulating video imagery. To the Australian audience, even with the benefit of back screen translation, the details are no doubt difficult to follow. However, the company has mastered the visceral language of immediacy. They have conveyed in no uncertain terms how people feel in their environment of dysfunction and mistrust. The empathy is gut-wrenching, especially when one accepts this is happening – right now - in Russia, Belarus and elsewhere - too many elsewheres.
Still, it’s an unrelentingly trenchant and too long. A man runs nude in a circle for the entire intermission and one realises what a tough gig this theatre company must me. Nothing compared to self-banishment from your homeland. Ethereal, soaring, mood-altering vocals, string instruments and sound effects provided onstage by Balaklava Blues at times evoke heart-rending pity.
This is the theatre of hitting back and the company’s commitment to motivate their countrymen and notify the world of the immediate danger is brave and awesomely compelling. Bravo!
David Grybowski
When: 2 to 6 Mar
Where: Dunstan Playhouse – Adelaide Festival Centre
Bookings: adelaidefestival.com.au
