On My Way to Magadan: Don't Believe, Don't Fear and Don't Ask is an original production based on the prison diary of Belarusian anarchist Igor Olinievich. He was sentenced to eight years in prison in 2011. Like many other anarchist and anti-fascist activists in Russia and Belarus, he was a victim of the state power, which has a habit of making an example of the anti-authoritarian movement as a deterrent whenever it needs to silence civil society and democratic opposition. Whether it is by mass arrests and torture or by destroying people's destinies in fabricated trials.
The production is straddling two worlds. Between the torturous grey of life in Lukashenko's Belarus (and the even more punishing timelessness of Minsk detention centre) and a fictional world full of heroic deeds in the struggle between good and evil, he flounders much like Olinevich himself - an "anarcho-partisan" by night, an electrical engineer and LARP player by day. In his diary, he describes the practices of the Belarusian prison system, based on brutal physical violence on the one hand, but also, and above all, on sophisticated psychological coercion, forcing prisoners to question their own will and conscience and to lose trust in their closest friends.
Igor Olinevich was resentenced to 20 years in prison for terrorism in December 2021, along with fellow resistance fighters Sergei Romanov, Dmitry Dubovsky and Dmitry Rezanovich.
Creative team:
Author of the draft: Igor Olinievich
Script: Adam Steinbauer and collective
Performers: Mark Kristián Hochman
Director: Adam Steinbauer
Dramaturgy: Libor Brzobohatý
Set design: Julie Ema Růžičková
Light design: Jakub Julínek
Music: Problem of a Tram Approacher
Production: David Šamánek
PR: Helena Gricová
Technical design: Bohdana Sýkorová
The production was created with the financial support of the Ministry of Culture in 2021.