Theatre News Wire

For an unprecedented artistic event with potential far-reaching international impact, Goodman Theatre Artistic Director Robert Falls and Executive Director Roche Schulfer invite Eastern Europe's Belarus Free Theatre to Chicago for a limited engagement of Being Harold Pinter, February 1 - 27, 2011. Presented in partnership with Northwestern University and the League of Chicago Theatres, Being Harold Pinter arrives in Chicago on the heels of its sold-out engagement at New York's Under the Radar Festival-for which the Belarus Free Theatre, facing persecution in their homeland, escaped imprisonment in December 2010. Being Harold Pinter, adapted and directed by Vladimir Shcherban, produced by Nikolai Khalezin and Natalia Koliada, was hailed as "truly passionate, truly political theater (that) isn't just admirable, it has virtues beyond its relevance and bravery" (The New York Times). Being Harold Pinter runs 1 hour, 15 minutes and is presented in Russian and Belarusian with English supertitles. Venue, performance schedule and ticket information will be announced shortly.

"We found it imperative to extend this brave, bold theater company's stay in the United States by offering them the opportunity to perform in Chicago," said Artistic Director Robert Falls. "These are artists struggling against an oppressive state, and their work is both essential and powerful."

Being Harold Pinter incorporates transcripts from Belarusian political prisoners with excerpts from Nobel-Prize winning playwright Harold Pinter's lifetime of writings. Belarus Free Theatre creates visually striking images with simple means, and underscores the fierceness of Pinter's words with the intense physicality of the actors. Being Harold Pinter blurs the boundaries between art and reality, delivering a poignant contemporary commentary on violence, oppression, freedom and human dignity.