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Theatre

London,

Being Harold Pinter

Description: Young underground theatre collective from Belarus, banned from their own country, present a combination of testimonies from political prisoners and excerpts from plays by Harold Pinter, as well as moments from his speech to the Nobel Prize Committee. In Russian, with English surtitles.



Rating: 3 out of 5 Fiona Mountford's rating
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Cast: The Belarus Free Theatre

Soho Theatre Dean Street, W1D 3NE

Phone: 0207478 0100

Website: www.sohotheatre.com

Extra info: Food, Pub

Transport: Tube: Tottenham Court Road Transport for London , Tube / Bus: 3, 6, 7, 8, 10, 12, 13, 14, 15, 19, 23, 25, 38, 53, 55, 73, 88, 98, 176 Transport for London

Actors who take real risks on stage

Being Harold Pinter
Defiant: the Belarus Free Theatre is appearing in London at considerable risk to the company

By Fiona Mountford
15 Feb 2008


Well, this certainly puts English theatre's recent bother with the Arts Council to shame. The Belarus Free Theatre, appearing in London at no inconsiderable risk to the company, is banned in its repressively policed homeland, where audiences are notified of secret performances via text message. It sounds like the kind of thing that the master of menace himself, Harold Pinter, might have dreamt up.

In a compendium evening that blends translated extracts from Pinter with the testimony of Belarusian political prisoners, there are a number of highly disconcerting moments when it is unclear where the fiction ends and the fact begins. It soon becomes apparent that Pinter's works, with their ever-present sense of disquiet and threat, are an ideal match for Vladimir Scherban's sparky, persecuted company.

Nonetheless, it's unclear why we need to linger quite so long on the personal before getting busy with the political. The scenes from The Homecoming and Old Times are brought to vivid life by a skilled ensemble of seven actors but the real zing comes with the tyrannical dictats and state-sponsored brutality of Mountain Language and One for the Road.

A clever framing device has one actor being Harold Pinter and delivering sections of his 2005 Nobel Prize acceptance speech on the importance of questioning received truth. The word "pravda" rings out repeatedly, ominously.

There are the usual tedious problems with the mechanics of the subtitles, which are awkwardly run on a screen above the performers' heads. This means we have to make a constant choice between words - and this company doesn't half talk fast - and expressions, when both would be preferable.

Far more successful are the two large black-and-white panels under this screen that display a close-up of Pinter's face with its searching, unreadable eyes.

Further displays of such solidarity with the Belarus Free Theatre are greatly to be welcomed but I would recommend next time they really go to town on a single text. For a framing lecture, they could do worse than the topic of Being Us.

Until 23 February. Information: 0870 429 6883, www.sohotheatre.com.

Details are correct at the time of publication - please check with venue before booking.

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