Belarus Free Theatre to Premiere New Works This Autumn

Two brand new productions from Belarus Free Theatre (BFT) will have their world premiere in the UK this autumn: the first, an unprecedented collaboration between BFT and Pussy Riot's Maria Alyokhina who makes her theatre debut in Burning Doors; the second, a thrilling theatrical investigation into psychosis and recovery - Tomorrow I Was Always a Lion - based on the extraordinary true-story of one woman's recovery from schizophrenia.

Belarus Free Theatre is one of the foremost refugee-led theatre companies in the UK and the only theatre in Europe banned by its government on political grounds. These latest productions continue the Company's ten-year track record for exploding social taboos on the world stage and campaigning for artistic freedom and human rights across the globe.

Nicolai Khalezin, co-founding Artistic Director of Belarus Free Theatre: "We don't have time to sit and wait. The people who desperately fight for art, who desperately say what they think, and sacrifice so many things are worth our solidarity and support".

Burning Doors is powerful theatre in solidarity with those who refuse to be silenced. Three contemporary artists under dictatorship - Pussy Riot's Maria Alyokhina, Russian Actionist and political artist Petr Pavlensky and incarcerated Ukrainian film-maker, Oleg Sentsov - are the inspiration behind this brand new stage production created by BFT co-founders, Nicolai Khalezin and Natalia Kaliada. Pussy Riot's Maria Alyokhina makes her theatre debut performing alongside members of BFT's permanent ensemble in a passionate new work that confronts the total suppression of artistic freedom just a four-hour flight from London.

Burning Doors will play at Leicester Curve (23 - 27 August), Soho Theatre (31 August - 24 September, national press night: Friday 2 September), Dartington Hall (28 & 29 September), Falmouth University (1 October), Contact Theatre, Manchester (10 - 12 October) and New Theatre Royal, Portsmouth (14 October).

Tomorrow I Was Always a Lion is based on the extraordinary memoir 'A Road Back from Schizophrenia' by Norwegian clinical psychologist Arnhild Lauveng, chronicling a ten-year period of illness and recovery in the life of the self-described "former schizophrenic". This worldwide bestseller has roused controversy and debate since its publication in 2012, now BFT's multi award-winning Associate Director Vladimir Shcherban will direct a cast of British actors in a brand new production using BFT's innovative theatrical method, Total Immersion, and in collaboration with world-leading experts in the fields of psychiatry, psychology and neuroscience to shatter the stigmas, stereotypes and preconceptions around mental health.

Tomorrow I Was Always a Lion will play at Arcola Theatre (19 - 29 October, national press night: Friday 21 October) and the Albany (1 - 12 November).

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