The Belarus Free Theatre have presented their ‘Being Harold Pinter’ in New York and are currently performing in Chicago. The play, which fuses a number of Pinter’s texts and devised material based on the troupe’s experiences of the regime in Belarus, offers a concentrated experience of Pinter’s Homecoming, Ashes to Ashes, Mountain Language and Old Times as well as elements of Pinter’s 2005 nobel acceptance speech. The company were given permission by Pinter to use his texts anywhere in the world to communicate their appeal against the excesses of dictatorship.
A special encore performance of the play was offered at the Public Theater, NYC, on January 17 with Tom Stoppard and Tony Kushner acting as hosts. Benefit performances have also been held in Washington and Dallas. The play is currently running in Chicago (read the Chicago Tribune blog posting here)