PUSSY RIOT: RIOT DAYS

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  – Vier Personen tragen bunte Sturmhauben und Pose mit Bekleidung voller Aufnäher vor mit Plakaten bedeckter Wand. Eine Person sitzt mit schwarzem Stiefel.

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  Foto: Denis Sinyakov – Sieben vermummte Menschen in bunten Kleidern stehen auf einer Plattform und schwenken eine lilafarbene Fahne mit einem feministischen Symbol. Im Hintergrund

A story of resistance, repression and revolution, somewhere between concert, rally, theatre and political happeningRiot Days is not a concert. Based on Maria Alyokhina’s books Riot Days and Political Girl, the show brings together live music, spoken word, theatre and documentary footage. Punk and electronics meet personal testimony in a performance about resisting dictatorship — and what it means to keep doing so.Created by producer Alexander Cheparukhin in collaboration with Maria Alyokhina, Riot Days has been touring internationally since 2016, reaching more than forty countries. The show has never been a fixed piece. It continues to respond to events in Russia and Ukraine, changing alongside the political reality it confronts. Each performance carries the names of political prisoners and documents Putin’s political repression and war crimes.The story is told through Alyokhina’s own experience. In 2012, she was sentenced to two years in a penal colony for her participation in Punk Prayer, Pussy Riot’s protest against Putin inside Moscow’s Cathedral of Christ the Saviour. She remained in Russia for years, leaving in 2022 after the full-scale invasion of Ukraine, when she was forced to flee.On StageMaria (Masha) Alyokhina Voice. Author. Member of Pussy Riot.In 2012, Alyokhina was sentenced to two years in a penal colony for Punk Prayer. While imprisoned, she took the prison administration to court over the treatment of inmates and won. She later documented those years in Riot Days and the life that followed in Political Girl. She also assembled Velvet Terrorism, the first survey of Pussy Riot’s work, which has travelled from Reykjavik to museums across Europe and North America. In 2025, a Moscow court sentenced her to 13 years in absentia.Alexander Cheparukhin Producer. Creator of Riot Days.Founder of GreenWave Music, Cheparukhin mobilised Paul McCartney, Peter Gabriel, Patti Smith, Sting and hundreds of others in support of Pussy Riot when its members were imprisoned in 2012. He was one of the driving forces behind the book Riot Days, and built the show.Alina Petrova (Rov) Composer. Multi-instrumentalist. Member of Pussy Riot.Petrova opens the show alone on stage, with a violin. Her work spans violin, viola, modular synthesizers and live programming. She founded the KYMATIC ensemble and completed a Master of Science in Sonology at the Royal Conservatoire in The Hague. In 2025, a Moscow court sentenced her to eight years in absentia.Taso Pletner Actor. Theatre and documentary-theatre director. Member of Pussy Riot.Pletner trained at the Moscow Art Theatre School under Dmitry Brusnikin. His collaboration with Icelandic artist Ragnar Kjartansson opened the exhibition Velvet Terrorism in Reykjavik before travelling to Montreal, Vancouver, Munich and elsewhere. In 2025, a Moscow court sentenced him to eleven years in absentia.Eric Breitenbach Drums and samples. Member of Pussy Riot. Co-founder of New Age Doom.Breitenbach drives the live sound of Riot Days on drums and samples and has toured with the production since June 2025. He also performs the live score for Alyokhina’s Political Girl literary performances across Europe and the UK.

Next date:

• Date Friday, 01/January/2027 20:00
• Venue Volksbühne am Rosa-Luxemburg-Platz: Vorbühne
• Address Linienstraße 277, 10178 Berlin-Kreisfreie Stadt Berlin