Pussy Riot, the Russian protest group and punk band, have announced that they will stage an eight week-long, biographical theater piece titled “Inside Pussy Riot” starting in November.
The performance, which will be put on by the company Les Enfants Terribles in London, will reportedly dramatize the group’s “epic ordeal when they were arrested, forced through a flawed judicial system and finally transported to a Russian jail.” This isn’t the first time the group has staged a theater performance, with member Maria Alyokhina staging a musical based on her book and personal experiences in Pussy Riot earlier this year in America.
Member Nadya Tolokonnikova, one of the members imprisoned in 2012 for “hooliganism motivated by religious hatred,” is asking people to support the new project through a Kickstarter. She writes that the performance will recreate “exactly what Pussy Riot went through during our imprisonment—from the original Church performance, to the court trial and prison cells” and that the audience will become participant in this experience. “Hopefully, this is a journey that you’ll only have to make once in your life.” Sounds terrifying!
“We’re hoping that this production will be funded by regular people from around the world who are excited about the idea of political immersive theatre, and we need your help!” Tolokonnikova writes. The project currently has a goal of $78,075 dollars with a little over $2,000 pledged.