January 19, 2011 | Le Poisson Rouge | New York City
With Billy Crudup, Margaret Colin, E.L. Doctorow, Don DeLillo, Tom Stoppard, Iva Bittova, and the Belarus Free Theater
In December 2010, the members of the Belarus Free Theater were either in jail or in hiding. In January, miraculously, they performed their play Being Harold Pinter as part of the Under the Radar Festival in New York. Upon their return in Belarus, they will continue to risk the wrath of President Aleksandr Lukashenko, the man known as “Europe’s last dictator.”
On the eve of their return to Minsk, the Belarus Free Theater joins internationally-acclaimed playwright Tom Stoppard, PEN American Center, and a stellar supporting cast for an evening celebrating artistic freedom and the courage of hundreds of writers, artists, journalists, and intellectuals targeted in Lukashenko’s latest crackdown following the nation’s flawed December elections. Billy Crudup, Don DeLillo, E.L Doctorow, Tom Stoppard, Iva Bittova, and other surprise guests come together for a farewell gathering featuring literature, music, and cocktail conversation about the power of art and the future of Belarus.