Inside the Pussy Riot rehearsals (Picture: Anastasia Tikhonova)

Pussy Riot, the Russian feminist punk collective who stage rebellious and dangerous anti-Putin protests in their homeland, are the 21st century’s first great provocateurs.

They’ve staged public orgies in museums and, famously in 2012, member Nadya Tolokonnikova was brutally imprisoned after performing anti Putin rhetoric in a cathedral.

Now immersive storytellers Les Enfants Terribles are turning their immersive theatre political, to tell Pussy Riot’s important story, extracting themes of rebellion, revolt and free speech for a ‘shocking and disturbing’ London show.

‘Moments will be disturbing, because they have to be,’ explains director Christa Harris. ‘We’re trying to make the show as brutal as it was for Nadya at the prison.’


The cast of Pussy Riot in rehearsals in north London (Picture: Anastasia Tikhonova)

Staging the atrocities in London is obviously more complex than re-housing Nadya’s experiences. The company’s challenge is tying in the current troubled Western political climate in the wake of sexual abuse claims in Hollywood.



That has provided another, ‘different’, backdrop entirely.

‘Being an all-female cast, there’s a lot we can draw upon,’ says Christa, who laments over how ‘repression’ for women in London is ‘different’ to how it is in Russia, but nevertheless Nadya’s story can be shifted into the new, wider context.

Immersive theatre is the hot ticket right now. Down the road from Pussy Riot Live at West London’s Saatchi Gallery, a light-hearted production will recreate mid-century India at the new Dishoom restaurant.

But Pussy Riot Live’s appeal is its shockingly close proximity to the state of the current landscape of politics, form the fear-mongering, personality politics of the patriarchy, to the wake of sexual abuse allegations in the media.

Audience members will wear balaclavas some segments of the show (Picture: Anastasia Tikhonova)

‘You can’t make a show about Pussy Riot with an all female cast and not be aware of gender politics, or have a conversation about the patriarchy,’ says artistic director Oliver Lansley.

‘The world is in such a … it’s such a fascinating time. You look at world leaders at the moment and they are these grotesque, alpha male gorgons: Putin, Trump, Kim Jong-un. Almost pantomime figures of masculinity.

‘The whole of the patriarchy is being deconstructed. To be making this piece at this moment in time you can’t escape the shadow of globally what is happening within our own industry.’

The show, which will give audiences the chance to experience the brutality of Russian prisons, draws directly on Nadya’s experience of the Russian prison system, of labour camps and impoverished jail cells as well as the court room where the activist was sentenced.

Lansley and creators Christa Harris and Tamsin Dowsett spent one-on-one time with her.

‘She has no interest in this being a vanity project. She doesn’t want this to be about her – it’s much more about the symbol of what Pussy Riot were, the effect they had,’ says Lansley.

Oliver Lansley and Les Enfants creative partner Gareth Farr have worked on big immersive shows before, including Alice’s Adventures Undeground (Picture: Getty Images)

So along with ‘disturbing scenes influenced by the activist’s experience, the show had a broader appeal, relatable far beyond Russian politics or the politics of sexual abuse’.

‘Definitely not a reconstruction’ but a reimagining, Les Enfants’ interactive show will involve audiences who will put on balaclavas, and experience first hand the stunning brutality of life in prison.

How on earth do you go about making theatre like this?

‘It’s about injecting theatricality while also being quite realistic: it’s contrasting, absurd and ridiculous – she was put in prison for hooliganism which is ridiculous anyway,’ explains Lansley, who confesses the show will be ‘disturbing for the audience to experience in close proximity’.



‘What we’re trying to do is take people in the most affluent area of London, and drag then down a rabbit hole: now you’re in a Gulag, and now you’re in a court, and now you’re in front of the world’s media.

‘This is a tiny, tiny taste of the whirlwind Nadya found herself in when one person saw the wrong thing and made the wrong phone call and everything changed.’

The show’s wider calling will be to encourage audiences to ‘fight for what they believe in and stand by’ those beliefs, says Lansley. ‘When you see Pussy Riot on TV and their music videos, it’s so iconic – but particularly in London we take our freedom for speech for granted.’

As for the violence Nadya and her troupe faced, in the dawn of challenging political times in the UK Lansley reckons ‘we’re not a million miles away. The state of the free world at the moment – America, Korea, the patriarchy. It’s huge – we’re trying to filter that down, to provoke and offer a new perspective.’

Of the show’s physical, technical scenes all director Christa will do is tease hints: ‘We’re trying to pull the rug out from the audience’s feet… The element of surprise is key.’

‘You never quite know where you stand – you think you’re going through one experience then we try to create the sensation of surprise and unpredictability.’

Actor in Pussy Riot Tamsin Doswett hopes audiences will leave with fresh verve to fight. ‘If I’ve done my job, people will feel challenged to voice how they feel. It’s an opportunity to change your life – it’s a very important piece.’


In theatre, now that it is hot, is the term immersive banded around too much?

Creatives aren’t giving much away about the technical details of the show (Picture: Anastasia Tikhonova)

‘Immersive theatre is making theatre an event,’ Christa says. ‘I can watch with fourth wall and feel moved, but if i can feel part of it, that’s better than sympathising from your red velvet seat in a lovely theatre – it’s breaking down boundaries.

‘We want to make it clear to the audience that the show doesn’t exist without them. We want to create an experience that is specific to that audience and react to that audience as much as possible – their behaviour will affect the show itself.

‘Nadya couldn’t shy away from the brutality in prison, so we felt we couldn’t shy away from it – we felt that actually it would be an insult if we made bits easier for the audience.’

Pussy Riot Live is at the Saatchi Gallery until December 24.

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