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A Russian feminist protest and performance art group, they are best known for their provocative activist punk performances. On their name’s significance, they stated, “We called ourselves Pussy Riot because the first word denotes a sexist attitude towards women. Our ‘riot’ is our reply to that attitude.”
Founded in 2011, the group gained global prominence after a performance at Moscow’s Cathedral of Christ the Saviour led to the imprisonment of three of its members – Maria (Masha) Alyokhina, Nadezhda (Nadya) Tolokonnikova, and Yekaterina (Katya) Samutsevich.
In February 2014, Masha, Nadya, and other members showcased as Pussy Riot during the Winter Olympics in Sochi. Their performance was interrupted by Cossacks, serving as security, who assaulted them with whips and pepper spray.
After prison, Masha and Nadya emerged as the most identifiable faces of Pussy Riot. Many affiliate the group with them. However, despite their shared history, various joint protest actions, and belonging to the same Pussy Riot political activist collective, their individual on-stage performances are distinct.
About the show
Riot Days is a play based on the memoir of Pussy Riot’s Maria Alyokhina. It’s a story of resistance, repression and revolution in a mixture of concert, rally, theatre and political happening. The show has toured all over the world, it gave more than 200 performances in most of Europe, USA, Brazil, Australia and New Zealand and has received prestigious international awards, including Herald Angel Award, Lustrum Award and Total Theatre Award of Edinburgh Festivals.
“It’s impossible to look away. Powerful and exhilarating” – The Guardian
“Full of fierce, rousing joy, free of scripted cues … Poetic, razor-sharp and disarmingly witty… Riot Days convinced me that gigs still have the power to move the masses” – Charlotte Richardson Andrews
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