Leather jackets and protest banners, bootleg booze and molotov cocktails hang from above. These are the props from Dasha’s teenage years growing up in Belarus, back when she was an anarchist and, amid the fall of the Berlin Wall, change felt possible. Now middle-aged, Dasha has a chance to move to the US but, if she is to get away, she’ll have to help quell the unrest that rumbles around yet another corrupt election. Should she flee and thrive – or stay and fight?
Written by Karina Wiedman, who was born in Kazakhstan and has lived in Russia, Belarus and now the UK, The Anarchist is the inaugural winner of the Woven Voices prize for migrant writers. There is a diary-like intimacy to Wiedman’s play, which is lit up by vivid details and an innocent sense of humour. Scarlett Brookes, as Dasha, creates an easy relationship with the audience. She smiles conspiratorially with us as Dasha chases after the wrong boys (“I want to sing him love songs in French! I can’t speak French!”) and, like all teenagers, dreams of a better future.
