The fury of Pussy Riot's Riot Days is more vital than ever
The world has changed since Pussy Riot first bombarded their way into Edinburgh in 2018 to win a Herald Angel award.
Back then, key member of the anarchic balaclava-clad Russian art collective Maria Alyokhina transformed her experiences on the frontline into an incendiary piece of multi-media punk theatre. This followed a high-profile trial after Alyokhina and two other members of the collective were imprisoned after performing an anti-Putin action in a Russian Orthodox Church. The result, adapted from Alyokhina's memoir, Riot Days, and performed by Alyokhina with a well-drilled band of actor/musicians, was an urgent piece of in-yer-face agit-prop.
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Seven years on, the fifty-minute compendium of autobiographical monologues, Brechtian captions, documentary film footage, primitive martial beats and industrial sturm und drang is brought bang up to date with a new band and fresh material. The former features vocal upstarts Olga Borisova and Taso Pletner, with the latter also playing flute. While Alyokhina remains at the show's centre, Borisova and Pletner flank her in a way that gives off a guerrilla girl group vibe. This is pulsed by the martial drums and electronic beats conjured up by Eric Breitenbach of Canadian band, New Age Doom.
The show's narrative has developed to draw from Alyokhina's forthcoming second book, Political Girl: Life and Fate in Russia, and includes details of Pussy Riot's disruption of the 2014 Sochi Olympic Games and Alyokhina's further arrests and imprisonment. It also honours the death of anti-corruption politician, Alexey Navalny, who was almost killed after being poisoned, and later died while in prison. There is a moving moment of silence too as film footage of Russian journalist Irina Slavina is shown of her setting herself on fire. The shadow of Russia's ongoing assault on Ukraine also hangs heavy throughout the piece.
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In what feels like a more disciplined if just as relentless production, overseen by producer Alexander Cheparukhin and with input from composer Alina Petrova, this new version of Riot Days is about evolution as much as revolution. While acknowledging the symbolism of yore, largely this is Pussy Riot unmasked in a blitz of a show that is part history lesson, part living newspaper. At its conclusion, Alyokhina highlights how what is currently happening in Russia could easily happen anywhere. Coming a few days after more than 400 peaceful protestors were arrested, not in the old Eastern Bloc, but in twenty-first century Britain, Riot Days remains a vital call to arms.
Runs at Summerhall until 23 August.
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