Best of Q: Why the embattled Belarus Free Theatre won't back down

Imagine risking your job, your education and/or your freedom to watch daring live theatre. That's exactly what the patrons of Belarus Free Theatre have had to do. 

In a conversation from the Best of Q, Natalia Kaliada, the exiled artistic director of the famously defiant theatre, speaks with guest host Piya Chattopadhyay about the company's ongoing struggle. Kaliada is one of the founders of the 9-year-old theatre, which has been the target of government censorship since it formed in 2005. 

Free expression is worth fighting for

Over the years, the theatre's staff members have been threatened, beaten and arrested. The situation became so dire that Kaliada and Nikolai Khalezin, her partner and co-artistic director, were forced to flee the country. 

"We just wanted to say what we want to say, to who we want to say, whenever and wherever we want to say by means of the theatre. It was a very simple idea," Kaliada tells Piya, adding that when everything is prohibited, at some point you have to do something surprising.