LONDON: Theatre director Natalia Kaliada says she was working under lockdown long before the coronavirus pandemic, forced to work at a distance with actors and others in her native Belarus after being driven into political exile in London nearly a decade ago.
Her ‘Belarus Free Theatre’, which has operated underground since dissident artists founded it in 2005, is marking its 15th anniversary just as Belarus is convulsed by protests against its veteran president, Alexander Lukashenko.
For Kaliada and her husband Nicolai Khalezin, also an artistic director, having to create and rehearse plays only online is nothing new.
“When coronavirus happened and lockdown started all over the world… it was a very interesting experience because suddenly all people, like from European theatres, they started to reach out to us…