Sara Keating on theatre: Performed in exile, a Belarusian dystopian play is now all too real

Dogs of Europe, performed by Belarus Free Theatre, has become a call to action against Russian aggression

Pavel Haradnitski in Dogs of Europe by Belarus Free Theatre: an adaptation of Alhierd Bacharevic’s dystopian novel about a future in which all memory of Belarus has been lost, erased by a Russian superstate. Picture: Linda Nylind

“Where the books were burned, in time people will burn.” This message is projected against a screen at the end of Dogs of Europe, a new performance piece from Belarus Free Theatre which was performed at London’s Barbican Centre last week.

It originated in Minsk two years ago, when the radical theatrical troupe were still based in their native country. Covid-19 put a halt to their international tour, but the context into which Dogs of ...