For this year’s SXSW Festival it was announced that Nadya Tolokonnikova from punk rock group Pussy Riot will be one of the featured speakers at the event. As an added bonus though, the Russian conceptual artists will join together as the Pussy Riot Theatre to perform the world premiere of their new play Revolution. For those who are unfamiliar the Pussy Riot Theatre is their new project that is lead by Maria Alyokhina.
Pussy Riot is a Russian female protest art group based in Moscow, Russia that was founded March 2011 with a variety of members that totaled almost 11 women. The group would stage performances of provocative punk rock at unusual public places which were edited into music videos and then uploaded online. Some of the themes of their songs include feminism, LGBT rights, and opposing Russian President Vladimir Putin – referring to him as a dictator. One theme encompassed Putin’s ties to the leadership of the Russian Orthodox Church.
The collective gained much attention when five members staged a performance inside Moscow’s Cathedral of Christ The Savior in 2012. This performance was deemed sacrilegious by the Orthodox clergy and stopped by security officers. Their motive was targeted at the Orthodox Church leaders’ support for the Russian President during his election campaign. By March, three of the members known as Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, Maria Alyokhina, and Yekaterina Samutsevich were charged after being arrested for hooliganism. By August, they were convicted of “hooliganism motivated by religious hatred” with a two year imprisonment term. Eventually after an appeal Samutsevich was released on probation while the other sentences of the other two women stayed.
This conflict attracted much attention and criticism mostly from the West especially human rights group Amnesty International. After serving 21 months, Tolokonnikova and Alyokhina were released December 2013 after Russian Parliament approved an amnesty. Even after their release, Tolokonnikova and Alyokhina along with several members performed at the Winter Olymics in Sochi resulting in them being attacked with ships and pepper spray who were employed security guards. Over the last couple years Pussy Riot has recorded and released a variety of videos each with a specific theme. They have appeared as speakers at many international festivals and other events. Maria Alyokhina eventually debuted in “Burning Doors” by the Belarus Free Theatre of a story with three artists who become political prisoners in Russia. Doesn’t that sound familiar?
Alyokhina’s experience performing this play encouraged her to start her new project Pussy Riot Theatre featuring Revolution which is a play based off her book that is a personal story of Pussy Riot. The two main events the Red Square and the Cathedral of The Christ the Savior. Basically, you get taken through the journey of escaping from police, arrest, jail, and a police investigation, trial and prison term. This project is produced by Alexander Cheparukhin. Now the wait will be over with their SXSW performance as their world premiere from this special iteration of the group.
The band is also scheduled to perform the play in Brooklyn, NY on March 17. Find tickets for that event here.
The group has stayed active as of late, dropping a three-song EP titled XXX and releasing videos for all three of the songs – “Make America Great Again,” “Straight Outta Vagina” and “Organs.”
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