Dogs of Europe

Dogs of Europe description

Oppression isn’t just meted out by those in power; it’s allowed by everyone who is complicit, across all walks of life.

Every member of Belarus Free Theatre now lives in political exile, forced to flee their homeland for safety as one of Belarus’ leading resistance movements. Their theatre, renowned for its absurdist humour, fierce physicality, theatrical disruption and activism, has travelled the world to public and critical acclaim, most recently to London’s Barbican Theatre.

The dystopian story in Dogs of Europe moves from 2019 to 2049 – a time when Russia has taken over several countries to form a new European super-state under the control of a secretive and brutal regime in which individual rights have been trampled. When one man begins a journey to this territory, he discovers less about the origins of its oppressive regime and more about his own complicity in its creation. The production is an anarchic eruption of mordant black humour and cartoonish violence, featuring evocative live music performed by Balaklava Blues.

A haunting, playful, dreamlike requiem not just for Belarus but for culture and national identities generally.

Time Out

Based on the prescient 2017 novel by political exile Alhierd Baсharevič – also banned in Belarus – Dogs of Europe is an epic fantasy and political thriller about the corrupting influences of dictatorship. This is a landmark and urgent work from one of the world’s bravest theatre companies.

Immensely powerful and the conversation it provoked in the audience afterwards was searing and deep.

Cate Blanchett