Belarus Free Theatre, Labour Mobility and the Cultural Politics of the Border

This document comprises two linked sections that open up a critical space for reflecting on the Belarus Free Theatre and serve to broadly mark the company’s activities from 2009 to 2013.

The first section is a document that considers Belarus Free Theatre’s role as a transnational cultural producer with symbolic capital in the international theatre community. It traces complex questions about the rhetoric of border crossing in theatre and performance; the wider labour conditions of contemporary cultural workers in theatre and performance; and the wider context of cultural work. Through reflecting on Belarus Free Theatre and its reception in Europe and North America, this piece aims to throw into relief the labour politics that organise the working lives of cultural workers in London.

The second section is an interview conducted with the company’s co-founders, Natalia Kaliada and Nikolai Khalezin, in Minsk in 2009. It offers a unique opportunity to gain insight into their thoughts on Belarus Free Theatre’s relationship to both politics and cultural production prior to their 2011 exile from Belarus. The interview traces a complex set of aspirations tied to visibility, political agitation, and cultural and symbolic capital that raise important questions about the role the contemporary theatre and performance industry can play in mobilizing political and social change within the prevailing contemporary political economy.