The play „avalanche“ by Bolat Atabayev, Tuncer Cücenoglu and the Aksaray theatre from Almaty is a parable of the dictatorship in Kazakhstan. The inhabitants of a mountain village spend most of their time silent. Speaking in a loud voice, screaming, singing or celebrating are all forbidden and subject to death penalty due to the danger of causing an avalanche. When a woman gives birth to a child and there is no avalanche despite the baby’s cries, the people shake off their fear. They begin to rise up and to get loud.
Solidarity with the resistance in Kazakhstan! Theatre play ‘avalanche’ by Bolat Atabayev in Cologne, Germany.
Before the play started, the director gave a short introduction about the political background and content. Thus, although the dialogues were exclusively held in kazakh language, the plot and storyline were comprehensible to all the spectators. The excellent actors get across the fear of the threatening catastrophe in a very intense manner, and the picture language of the costumes further underlines the satirical content.
Solidarity with the resistance in Kazakhstan! Theatre play ‘avalanche’ by Bolat Atabayev in Cologne, Germany.
The director, Bolat Atabayev, himself has suffered repression by the kazakh regime. Last year, he was only liberated from prison after numerous protests and international pressure after being sentenced because of „stirring social unrest“. The conviction was a punishment for solidarising with the striking oil workers of Shanaozen, in 2011. Atabayev is now working on a new theatrical play which is to deal with the massacre of kazakh security forces of 16 Decembre 2011, where dozens of people were killed (though officially, the state only admits 17). Until today, numerous worker activists are „lost“, imprisoned or prosecuted. Yet notwithstanding this level of ongoing repression, the workers have been keeping fighting.
After the end of the play, Bolat Atabayev thanked the activists of „Campaign Kazakhstan“ and kazakh trade union activist, Ainur Kurmanov, who was also present, for their work. Ainur is a leading comrade of the kazakh section of the committee for a workers’ international, having spent several prison sentences himself because of his political activity, but as well as many other activists he is presently in exile because his life is at risk in Kazakhstan. In a spontaneous solidarity display for the resistance in Kazakhstan, artists and audience gathered for a joint photograph.
