Russian art-punk collective Pussy Riot brought a showcase of the recent events in Russia and Ukraine to Rescue Rooms...
How do you go from a cultural award to prison in a year and a half? You allow your freedom to be stolen. After 1990, Russia and the Eastern Block were the freest places artistically in the world. The Church and State are not constitutionally linked.
Putin.
Ten years ago, the warnings were there, and Pussy Riot grew out of an artistic movement that as all good art does, holds a mirror up to society and reveals the real problems. From a giant penis painted on a bridge, that the authorities did not particularly like, but they saw the cultural reference in the gesture and gave them a cultural award for the most innovate art of the year, to an arrest for dancing in Moscow Cathedral.
Dark authoritarian clouds though. Pussy Riot is not a music band. This is provocative art. This is exposing truth.
Their appearance at Rescue Rooms was a performance of the recent life and events of Russia, Ukraine and the life of Maria Alyokhina (also known as Masha). Introduced by Alexander Cheparukhin, who produced the show and was also in charge of the subtitles, he explained how he had met Masha and gave a background to the events leading up to her arrest and the history of Pussy Riot. Diana Burkot, was in charge of drums, sequencers and keyboard, complete with a broken ankle she got recently!
Pussy Riot as performed; “A Riot’s Guide”, was a provocative, thoughtful, immersive and at times interactive event. However, it will leave you broken. Broken for the loss of freedoms, not only in Russia, not only in the invasion of Ukraine, not only in the realisation that powerful insipid people will, in the blink of an eye, impose their order on you, if you let them.
This is happening all over. Pussy Riot is not about these four people on stage. It is about you, your family and friends, your work colleagues, the strangers in the street. Over an hour and a half relentless performance, illuminating the harshness, the cruelty of regimes and the strength of the individual and support for those brave enough to stand up. Humanity and society.
We are not state. We are not the ruling elite in the hands of the religious extremists, who want control over your lives and bodies. Resist. Be bright. Be bold. Make people think and let people see you are human and full of joy.
I didn’t read any reviews prior to tonight on purpose. I didn’t want to have my judgement clouded by other journalists. I came in with an open mind, a mind that was enlightened further tonight. It was not an easy show; heart-breaking, shocking, frightening, but ultimately one of hope, of resistance and survival.
These sorts of shows stay with you long after the lights come up and the plastic cups are cleared away. They should. The show was in support of Ukraine children hospital in Kviv. A victim of an illegal war caused by Putin.
One regret was that not enough people saw this show. The mass media portrays Pussy Riot as troublemaking females, The media want to do this. The media want to control you because they are the same people behind Putin. US Mid Terms. UK unelected Prime Ministers. Brexit. Elections in Italy. Society is failing and falling into the wrong hands, willingly by the shouts of those empty barrels making the most noise.
Wake up.
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