Nikolai Khalezin:”Tom Stoppard, Kevin Spacey and Jude Law are the voices of democratic Belarus.”

Kevin Spacey offered rehearsal space to the Belarusian Free Theatre in London theatre Old Vic where he holds the position of The Artistic Director.

On March 28 Belarusian Free Theatre, London theatres Almeida and Young Vic, British human rights organization Index on Censorship conducted a joint action with participation of British prominent art figures, public persons and members of the British Parliament. In details – Artistic Director of Free Theatre Mikalai Khalezin.

How was the idea of the action born?

During the January New York tour and the February Chicago tour we organized several large-scale events in cooperation with some American art figures. And by the time we flew to London the information had reached there. We founded the tradition to carry out events of sympathy with Belarus here, in London, in 2008, during our tour in Soho Theatre. At that time Kim Cattrell, Alan Rickman, Diana Quick performed with us in our play “Being Harold Pinter” and Harold Pinter, Tom Stoppard and Mark Ravenhill were in the audience…In December 2010 we conducted another event in London – Jude Law, Sienna Miller, Sam West and Adjoa Andoh appeared on stage with our actors in “Discover Love”.

After our latest return from US our numerous British friends, who had learn of the New York and Chicago events, suggested organizing a similar action in London. Though we were absolutely running out of time – in ten days we are supposed to start another New York tour.

This event’s format was different from the previous ones. How do you come up with agenda of such events?

Very simple – the format is determined by the goals of the event. Our goals were to attract attention to British businesses which actively cooperate with the Lukashenko regime and to initiate hearings in the British Parliament. That’s why the venue we spotted for the picket was the street in front of Grayling Offices, and for the performance – The Houses of Parliament.

That sounds like an average man could easily book the Second Chamber of the Houses of Parliament and conduct a performance there, really?

First of all, The Houses of Parliament is an institution open for offers. If you suggest carrying out an event which helps members of the Parliament to look closely into some issue that will always be welcomed. Second, while organizing such actions every participant handles a specific aspect of work. Human rights organization Index on Censorship constantly deals with the Parliament – that’s why they carry negotiations about the performance; we have friendly connections with British theatre figures – that’s why we handle the invitations; London theatres have their own printing facilities – that’s why they handle promotion and advertising. And everybody cooperate at different stages of work.

By the way, there was a mess-up – many people failed to pass the police check-up in time and missed the beginning of the performance, that’s why the Chamber was filled to capacity only by the end of the performance. And also the Chamber wasn’t able to accommodate everybody – more than a hundred people were unable to get in.

There was information in the media that Grayling Company invited you for a conversation right before the picket. What did you speak about if that’s not a secret?

The company management got downright scared – it’s not every day that you see Jude Law and Kevin Spacey picketing some office in London. That’s why they fronted CEO Michael Murphy to negotiate with us, and on our side were Iryna Bahdanava, Index on Censorship rep Michael Harris, me and Natalia. The company reps attempted to take the conversation on a general turn trying to compare Belarus to either China or to Russia, but we explained that Belarus is a sovereign state and if Grayling have offices in China that is a Chinese problem, not ours.

They asked us to voice our demands, which are the following: to stop cooperation with Lukashenko and to close the company offices in Minsk. At the end of our conversation we warned them that we would proceed our pressing on the company until they closed their Belarusian offices. At the same time we are informing British media about the companies collaborating with the Belarusian regime, especially those ones utilizing “black” or obscure business schemes.

What made Kevin Spacey and Jude Law to take part in the event?

Jude and Kevin are, without any doubt, first-class stars and get the lion’s share of attention. But we have to point that representatives from more than a dozen theatres took part in the event, among them were playwrights Alexandra Wood and Laura Wade, Almeida theatre artistic director Michael Attenborough, actors Sam West, Adjoah Andoh and many others. Our relations with Kevin Spacey and Jude Law started not long time ago. In January Kevin came to see our performance in New York where we met him. He was delighted with our play “Being Harold Pinter” and immediately offered us rehearsal space at Old Vic Theatre where he is the Artistic Director. We’ve examined the venue already, by the way, and yesterday Kevin scheduled an appointment with us to discuss our further plans to work together.

We met Jude Law in December last year when he decided to take part in “Discover Love” performance. Just a while ago he introduced Natasha [Natalia Kaliada] at the TED Conference. Now we’ve made one more step in our relationship – that is “Jeans Generation” performance, which we staged together at the Parliament. The key to their involvement into Belarusian issues is probably that both the country and its problems are personified for them. Belarus for them is not just an encyclopedia article, but the Free Theatre troupe, real people. Today British journalists are already calling Tom Stoppard, Kevin Spacey and Jude Law “the voices of democratic Belarus”.

You’ve staged the performance “Jeans Generation” together with Jude Law. How did it go? What language did you use?

Initially the play was adapted by Tom Stoppard as the full performance set in two languages would take about three hours. We decided to skip reading, which would be actually more suitable in such circumstances, and to bring the performance content as close as possible to the play’s format. The text was broken up into small paragraphs and we recited them in turns. The result was a dialogue between two people, one speaking in Russian, the other - in English. That was a really interesting and creative cooperation. Jude is an extraordinary partner, it’s a pleasure to play with him; he easily picks up the tiniest nuances just at sight, but at the same time analyzes the text in details. You can easily tell why this actor earns so much just being on stage with him.

How was the performance received?

It’s worth mentioning that for the first time in the history of England the play was staged in the British Parliament. And the decision to provide The Second Chamber for that purpose came as an unexpected surprise for us. The main debates have taken place in that Chamber and its history is reckoned for centuries. So the fact, that we were first to do that is absolutely fantastic. The audience realized it quite well, that’s why the reception of the play was extremely enthusiastic.

It seems we did well: unbelievable ovations, “Bravo” shouts, incredible reviews. A journalist from “Evening Standard” said: “If Michael Billington rated this performance five stars in “The Guardian”, I would rate it six!”

Could you sum up the results of the action held?

First and foremost is that we inform the world about the Belarusian political prisoners, who are kept in prisons under the trumped-up cases.

Second, we triggered the British media interest in Belarus. All leading editorials without exceptions started to write about our country. Great Britain is the second country after the United States, where we managed to initiate this process.

Third, we succeeded in making media and society focus upon the cooperation issues between the representatives of British business and Lukashenko regime.

And fourth, Ed Miliband, a Parliament opposition leader, attended the performance and assured us that his party would initiate parliament hearings regarding Belarus.

The result seems not so bad for two weeks of work.

The fact that the Grayling Company hasn’t closed its office in Minsk is the only goal unachieved yet, isn’t it?

No, the office hasn’t been closed yet, but I guess that’s in progress, such things don’t happen fast. With the growing pressure, the company will start incurring losses and then we’ll watch its office close.

Taking the opportunity I want to give Belarusian people the address and the phone number of the Grayling company office in Minsk:

Grayling Belarus

15 Starazhevskaya Street, Room 2105

Minsk, Republic of Belarus

220002

Ph #: (375) 296 207 233

Any Belarusian resident can call or stop by the company office to find out why the company, defying ethical principles, participates in Belarusian property sales guided by the illegitimate president and works hard to improve his image in the world, actually deceiving fair investors.

What are the Free Theatre further plans?

From April 12 to May 15 we are expected in New York where we are giving 40 performances on the stage of cult theatre LaMama. There we demonstrate our plays “Being Harold Pinter”,”They Saw Drama”, “Zone of Silence”. At the same time we will be involved into social projects.