Error 403

„Error 403“is a play written by Halezin himself about the first documented victim of the revolution in Belarus, Alexander Taraikovsky, who died during a mass protest that began after the rigged presidential election on August 10th, last year. The 34-year-old Taraikovsky was killed in downtown Minsk after being shot in the chest with a special ammunition shotgun by a fighter from a special police unit sent to disperse protesters. The main character of the play, however, is not Taraikovski, but Nikita, the fighter of the special unit Almaz, who fired the lethal shot. Almaz is a special counter-terrorism unit of the Belarussian Ministry of Internal Affairs.

Founded 15 years ago, the Halezin Theatre (Belarus Free Theatre, BFT), currently based in London for political reasons, selects its productions based on three principles: social justice, forbidden subjects, and human rights violations. “Our approach is closely related to investigative journalism,” stands on the BFT website.

Halezin, whose theatre is especially loved by the US and British critics. Ben Brantley, The New York Times’s famous, recently resigned chief theatre critic, named BFT a few years ago as the most visible and acclaimed underground theatre in the world..