A theatre festival in the Estonian border city of Narva is showcasing the contemporary issue of free speech with participating countries from Central Asia, Eastern Europe and Ukraine.
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00:00 A theatre festival in the Estonian city of Narva on the Russian border is showcasing
00:05 the issue of free speech with participating countries from Central Asia, Eastern Europe
00:09 and Ukraine. One of the plays is "Choose a Better Version" by Natalka Blok. It's a co-production
00:15 between the organizers Vaba Lava and the Kyiv Theatre of Playwrights and looks at the choices
00:20 people have to make in Ukraine.
00:22 "My main message is the choice we would not have to make if Russia came to kill us. There
00:29 is no good choice in such conditions. What we do is a choice without a choice. Everyone
00:36 chooses it himself."
00:43 The actors and production team are all still living in Ukraine. The Latvian director Volta
00:48 Silins travelled there for rehearsals.
00:55 Being in Narva is a strange experience for Natalka. She hasn't been so close to Russia
01:08 for two years.
01:15 "I don't understand why it's a city, why it's so big, why there are no tanks like
01:22 I've seen in Ukraine."
01:25 "Narva is at the border. The two borders are not new. They show that one border meets
01:32 the other. If there are no us, there is another border. And this border is the Russian Empire."
01:39 Through the international festival, Vaba Lava is offering theatres from regions of authoritarian
01:42 rule a chance to experience freedom of expression, while audiences in the West get a peek into
01:47 the theatre world hidden behind what is an effective iron curtain of more controlled
01:52 regimes. During the five-day festival, underground theatres from Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan
01:58 will perform in Narva.
02:06 "We all live in the same world. If there are people in this society who are proud and want
02:13 to stand for human rights and domestic freedom, then I think that Narva is the right place
02:18 to perform."
02:20 Natalka Blok says theatre is even more important when Ukrainians are being bombed and shot,
02:25 and they've no other way to process what's happening to them.
02:32 "It's a kind of therapy, a kind of psychotherapy. And for me, too."
02:38 [SWOOSH]