Your Silence Will Not Protect You
Masakr Elsinor
27. 2. / 20.00 / Alfred ve dvoře
Czech / 60 min
This theatrical concert brings to the stage the courtroom speeches of present-day Russian prisoners of conscience, those convicted for YouTube, alleged terrorists from TikTok, but also dissidents, and often unwittingly involved artists.
At the heart of the production are Czech translations of the closing court speeches from two dozen cases in recent years. Journalists, entrepreneurs, artists, activists, professors, students, children. In Russia, they are all perpetrators, criminals, and they are given only a slight hint of a voice in the trials. On our stage, in a transparent cage, but somehow without restraint, they can say what they really think.
A glass cage, the outlines of the accused, the prosecutors’ files, laws, the harsh language of the honourable court. Fear in front of the barrier greater than that behind it. Tikkun olam is the repair of the world. Vladimir Kara-Murza cannot stand on his feet, Olga Misik clutches a whistle, the Ingush elder Malsag Uzhakov sees a fat, predatory, enormous and hundred-headed monster, an official leans too far out of the window, and Alexei Navalny quotes from the Bible: “This is your hour, the reign of darkness.”
The project was created on the basis of the book (Not) the Last Words, produced by Krutý krtek, z. s. From the Russian original Непоследние слова, published by Freedom Letters in 2023, selected texts were translated by Karolína Juráková, Hana Kosáková, Olga Pavlova, Zuzana Špinková, Jan Chalupník, Osip Dantev, Kryštof Neřold, and Tim Postovit.
The play uses excerpts from the last statements of Russian political prisoners who, despite persecution, imprisonment, torture, and the threat of death, refused to submit to Russia’s perverse politics and were not afraid to stand up against it. Some of them are now free (mostly abroad), some are still in prison, and some are no longer alive. They are: Maria Alyokhina, Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, Malsag Uzhakhov, Armen Aramyan, Dmitry Ivanov, Maria Ponomarenko, Viktor Filinkov, Vasily Kuksov, Alla Gutnikova, Mikhail Khodorkovsky, Alexei Navalny, Ilya Yashin, Vladimir Metelkin, Maria Dubovik, Andrei Novashov, Nikita Uvarov, Yulia Galyamina, Olga Misik, Andrei Pivovarov, and Yegor Zhukov.
The play also includes an excerpt from a letter concerning the revocation of Olga Kiriyenko’s citizenship, information about the use of electric torture against Ilya Shakursky and Dmitry Pchelintsev, and about the case of the minor Anya Zhuravleva, Yegor Starshinov, Kirill Smirnov, and Pavel Kushnir. The original texts are variously reshaped, supplemented, stylistically edited, and interwoven in accordance with the artistic intentions of the script. However, their meaning and message are preserved.
Creative team
Screenplay: Ondřej Novotný
Dramaturgy: Marina Feltlová
Music: Tomáš Vtípil, Petr Míka
DJing: Tomáš Soldán
Set design, puppets, costumes: Daria Gosteva
Production: Daniela Hekelová
Direction: Masakr Elsinor
Performing: Daria Gosteva, Václav Marhold, Vojtěch Hrabák, Tomáš Soldán, Petr Míka, Tomáš Vtípil
Photo by: Josef Chuchma
Supported by
..příští vlna/next wave…
