Belarus, Theater, and Breaking the Zones of Silence

HowlRound: On 19 December 2010—nearly three months after Belarus Free Theatre's performance in Norway—many Belarusians were arrested for peacefully protesting against the controversial re-election of Alexander Lukashenko, in power since 1994. Journalists, educators, students, poets, filmmakers, and others were imprisoned during this period. One rival presidential candidate, Uładzimier Niaklajeŭ, was beaten into unconsciousness, and later hospitalized by armed men dressed in black. Mikola Statkievič, another presidential candidate who was attacked, said that their assailants were members of Belarus' special forces. Natalia Koliada, co-founder of Belarus Free Theatre and just one of the more than a thousand arrested that day, said she was threatened with rape by her prison guards in Minsk.