Belarusian Free Theatre received special recognition of Europe

Ceremony of awarding with the most prestigious Theatre Europe Prize took place in Greek Thessaloniki. The Belarusian Free Theatre received special recognition of jury for New Theatrical Reality.

The only Belarusian theatre among the prizewinners represented three performances - Generation Jeans, Being Harold Pinter, and firstnight The Zone of Silence directed by Uladzimir Shcherban.

The Free Theatre administration presented a flag of the civil campaign “European Belarus” to former French culture minister Jack Lange, one of the founders of the prize. Jack Lange replied that after the political situation would change in Belarus Theatre Europe Prize ceremony would be held in Minsk. Many famous people came to the ceremony to support the Free Theatre, among them leader of the “For Freedom” movement Alyaksandr Milinkevich.

The ceremony of awarding with the prestigious European Theatre Prize was attended by Robert Palmer, Director of Culture and Cultural and Natural Heritage of the Council of Europe; Gottfried Wagner, head of the European Cultural Foundation; Erik Ehn, one of the heads of California Institute of the Arts; Boris Gerrets, professor of Netherlands Media Art Institute; Michael Billington, the Guardian's theatre critic.

“Actually, it is a historical day not only for the Belarusian theatre, but for the whole country. It is the first time when a Belarusian theatre receives such a serious recognition of the world. We are glad that people from all over the world came to support our theatre. This interest is evidence that Europe in interested in political and cultural situation in Belarus,” Mikalai Khalezin, leader of the Free Theater, said in the interview to the Cahrter’97 press center.