BWW Reviews: CATF: WE ARE PUSSY RIOT is Cleverly Staged and Immersive Experience for Audience

We Are Pussy Riot, currently running at CATF, is an immersive and outstanding theatrical experience, filled with unique choices and the sobering undercurrent that this story is not just theatrical fiction.

Creatively directed by Tea Alagic and written by Barbara Hammond, We Are Pussy Riot depicts the protest by female Russian activist group Pussy Riot in the Church of Christ the Savior in Moscow in 2012. After protesting for less than a minute, the group is disbanded from the church and gain national recognition when a video of their protest is uploaded to YouTube. The play depicts the events following the protest, including the trials for three of the group members and ties into the story of prisoner Sergey, undergoing a hunger strike in protest of his arrest and the injustice in his country.

We Are Pussy Riot begins before the play actually begins. In a refreshingly unique tactic, while the audience is waiting in the lobby to enter the theater, we see Pussy Riot re-enacting their famous 2012 protest. The girl group members scream and protest inches away from the audience members and are disbanded by the actors playing police in the lobby. We also witness the beginning of the story when history teacher, Sergey, attempts to film the girls and is arrested for "interfering with police business" and "obstructing justice".

T. Ryder Smith does a phenomenal job in the heart and soul of the production as Sergey, a history teacher imprisoned and protesting on a hunger strike. His interaction and improvisation with the audience at the beginning of the show was excellent and many of his ideological speeches, especially toward the end of the show, were honest and heartbreaking. His dual role as the prosecutor of the trial was an incredible change and wonderfully displayed his comedic abilities.

Sarah Nealis in another dual role as Dr. Anna, the prison doctor who attends to Sergey and the judge presiding over the trial, is fantastic. She makes Dr. Anna outwardly sharp, precise and meticulous, while slowly displaying the vulnerable, compassionate and insecure girl underneath while opening up in the more time she spends around Sergey. As a sharp contrast, she makes the judge delightfully incompetent, over-the-top and arrogantly presumptuous.

In another delightfully different dual role, Cary Donaldson shines as Pussy Riot's defense attorney and as Sergey's prison guard. His comedic timing is excellent in the courtroom scenes and his bottled-up passion waiting to explode when the girls are faced with yet another injustice is extraordinary. As Sergey's prison guard, Donaldson provides an excellent study in gray in what should be a black and white villainous character as he is slowly challenged and converted by Sergey's ideas and speeches.

Libby Matthews as Nadya, Liba Vaynberg as Masha and Katya Stepanov as Katya, the three members of Pussy Riot on trial for the protest, each did a spectacular job in performances ripe with passion and purpose. They are joined by fellow members of Pussy Riot; Allyson Malandra, Keyla McClure and Brianne Taylor. All of the women give fearless performances and have a great moment mid-way through the performance when they first interact with the audience to explain what the group Pussy Riot is about and what ideals they stand for.

A wonderful element to the production is the staging choice to include the audience in the action as a character in the show. Characters frequently run through and around the audience, directly ask audience members questions and, at one point, cleverly pull audience members onstage to participate as witnesses in the trial (A Helpful Hint: If you do not enjoy being onstage, don't request tickets in the front rows for this production). Smith and Nealis show off their excellent improvisational skills as they build dialogue on-the-spot around the answers the audience witnesses give.

The audience is constantly reminded throughout the piece that this is not theater, and these events truly happened and continue to happen to the members of Pussy Riot. Some of the references are humorous, as in the trial scenes when the trial is presented as a three ring circus or spectator sport, while it would more appropriately belong in theater of the absurd. The reality that much of the absurdest dialogue in the show actually comes from the real life 2012 court transcripts is sobering however. The show also makes great use of questioning the audience about how living in the age of virtual celebrity and instant notification of the Internet can help or hinder the group's message and actions.

While a few moments near the end of the show are unnecessary and included mainly for shock value or another attempt to push-the-envelope, We Are Pussy Riot is an incredible piece of live theater which directly involves the audience to think about and speak up against the injustices occurring in today's global society, and cleverly staged so no one in the house can remain unnoticed or passively comfortable.

We Are Pussy Riot continues to run as one of the five plays in rotating repertory at the Contemporary American Theater Festival. We Are Pussy Riot performances occur at the Marinoff Theater in the Center for Contemporary Arts on the campus of Shepherd University in Shepherdstown, WV. The final performance occurs August 2 at 2:30 PM. For more information about the show schedule, the 2015 season or to order tickets, please visit www.catf.org.

Photo Credit: CATF Media Gallery

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