Director's Note:

President Alexander Lukashenko was elected to his sixth term as president of Belarus in August 2020 - in an election outcome many considered rigged. 

Prior to that election, opposition leader and pro democracy activist Sergei Tikhanovsky attempted to run against Lukashenko - but was arrested before the vote could take place. His wife, Svetlana Tikhanovskaya took over the opposition movement following his arrest and is widely believed to be the real winner of the election. However, official results published by the Election Commission of Belarus awarded Lukashenko the win with a ludicrous 80% of the vote. Tikhanovskaya was then forcibly expelled from the country. She is currently leading it from exile in Lithuania. 

On December 14th, 2021, Sergei Tikhanovsky was convicted of organizing mass unrest and inciting social hatred. He was sentenced to 18 years in prison.

When the wide spread fraud was made public, over a quarter of a million people took to the streets of Minsk in protest. The demonstrations were met with brutality. Since those protests, thousands of people — including other opposition leaders, protesters and Belarusians who consume news from independent outlets — have been detained, beaten and, in some cases, tortured and killed under Lukashenko's administration.

This play is a collection of verbatim testimonies from real Belarusians telling their stories of what happened.

-Guillermo Cienfuegos, Director