All-Female Cast Announced for Les Enfant Terribles' INSIDE PUSSY RIOT

An exciting all-female cast have been announced for Inside Pussy Riot - the new immersive theatre show from Les Enfants Terribles, the creators of Olivier nominated hit Alice's Adventures Underground, Bird&Carrot (Brodsky/Baryshnikov) and Pussy Riot's co-founder Nadya Tolokonnikova.

The dynamic cast are: Alex Gilbert (The People's Revolt, Tower of London; Alice's Adventures Underground, The Vaults; The Fitzrovia Hour's Christmas Special, St James' Theatre Studio); Alice Ivor (Thirst, The Space; Lemons Lemons Lemons Lemons Lemons, London venues and Brighton Fringe; Doctors, BBC One); Asha Reid (Scarlet, Southwark Playhouse; Electra, The Old Vic; Beggar's Opera, Regents Park Open Air Theatre); Beatrice Scirocchi (Nuclear War, Royal Court; The Winter's Tale, ENO; The Skriker, The Royal Exchange); Cassandra Hercules (Under My Thumb, Edinburgh Fringe, Greenwich Theatre, New Diorama Theatre; 28 Days Later, Secret Cinema; The Tempest, UK Tour); Charlotte Newton John (White Devil, Shakespeare's Globe; Abigail's Party, Contexture Theatre and Rhodes Art Centre; Ghostbusters, Secret Cinema); Elena Voce (Ivanov, National Theatre; Dr Strangelove, Secret Cinema; The Poetry We Make, London venues and Brighton Fringe); Emily Stott (The Picture of Dorian Gray, Watermill Theatre; Early Doors, UK Tour; The Selfish Giant, Arcola Theatre); Fleur Rooth (GIANT, UK tour; The Girl Who Fell In Love With The Moon, UK tour; Monotone Man, UK tour); Jenny Horsthuis (Macbeth, St Paul's Church; Word Words Words, Corbett Theatre; Fast Track, Monologue Slam UK); Marah Stafford (Alice's Adventures Underground, The Vaults; The Golden Needle, JOYCE Central Hong Kong; Back to The Future, Secret Cinema); Mollie Lambert (The White Devil, Sam Wanamaker Playhouse; Dixi, CBBC; Russian Dolls, King's Head Theatre); Rebecca Ward (60 Hour Film, London Short Film, Toyota Flow, Printworks; Dr Strangelove, Secret Cinema); Rosalind McAndrew (Scribble, Edinburgh Fringe; The Girl with the Imagination, Imaginate; Sinking Horses, Hidden Door); Roseanna Brears (The Famous Five, Gobbledigook Theatre; Humans, Channel 4; The Time Portal, MC Motors); Sara Hooppell (Freak, The Space; Macbeth, Beer Quarry Caves; Bare Blood New Bones, Bike Shed Theatre); Tamaira Hesson (The Merchant Of Port Royal, Belgrade Theatre; Sense8, Netflix); Tamsin Dowsett (Alice's Adventures Underground, The Vaults; Les Misérables, Queen's Theatre; Virtually Blackfriars, Platform, Southwark).

Director Christa Harris comments, I am tremendously excited to be directing an immersive experience with a group of kick-ass, courageous women who are ready to punch the patriarchy in the face and tell the world that they will not be silenced. As Pussy Riot are an all-female, punk, protest group, we felt that this story would best be served by reflecting this in the casting. Of course, being a female is not a prerequisite to being a feminist, but as our cast are playing Pussy Riot playing various roles in the experience (a la Pussy Riot's 2016 music video 'Make America Great Again'), this felt like an important artistic and political decision to go forward with. We want to push boundaries with this production, and not only aim to inspire and empower our audience with the anarchic spirit of Pussy Riot, but most importantly show them the power of their own voices.

The new immersive production, Inside Pussy Riot, marks the 100th anniversary of the Russian Revolution. Audiences are encouraged to stand up for what they believe in, identifying with themes including censorship, patriarchy and pollution. Stand in the dock as Pussy Riot and live the realities of their incarceration through this exhilarating theatrical experience. Les Enfants Terribles and Nadya Tolokonnikova have created a Brechtian absurd experience, a unique mix of the comedic and the real.

Inside Pussy Riot is an immersive theatrical experience, about Nadya Tolokonnikova's tribulations as the co-founder of Pussy Riot, the post punk, feminist art collective who stuck two fingers up at the Russian system and suffered the consequences. Many remember that on 17th August 2012, Pussy Riot's Tolokonnikova was prosecuted for performing 35 seconds of a song called Virgin Mary Put Putin Away - a direct attack on the Russian Orthodox Church's unequivocal support for Vladimir Putin - inside Moscow's Cathedral of Christ the Saviour. She was convicted of 'hooliganism motivated by religious hatred' and was sentenced to two years of imprisonment, where she was faced with solitary confinement and humiliation, including regular forced gynaecological examinations.

The immersive world of Inside Pussy Riot seeks to remind audiences what actually happened and how one's basic human rights and freedom of expression can be taken away at any point. With heightened extreme theatricality, the production exposes the horrors of Pussy Riot's experience. It seeks to provoke and challenge audiences, showing that this could happen to anyone.

The production takes place as part of the Saatchi Gallery's Art Riot: Post Soviet Actionism exhibition and is presented in association with The Tsukanov Family Foundation.

Tickets are available from www.seetickets.com. For more information visit www.insidepussyriot.com.

Photo credit: Saatchi Gallery

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