Pussy Riot – Riot Days: An In-Your-Face Uncompromising Punk Experience ~ Adelaide Fringe 2019 Review   

[THEATRE/MUSIC ~ RUS] RCC Fringe – The Attic, Wed 27 Feb. In 2011 Pussy Riot formed in Moscow and quickly earned a reputation for subversive political demonstrations and public activism. Founding members Nadezhda ‘Nadya’ Tolokonnikova and Yekaterina ‘Katya’ Samutsevich played their song Ubey Seksista (Kill The Sexist) at a lecture on feminist punk, and within the same year the collective started a spiralling momentum, gaining notoriety for staging prominent and visible protests. Often targeting the bare-chested horseback-rider himself, President Vladimir Putin, Pussy Riot drew focus to corruption and injustices within Russia. Pussy Riot: Riot Days brings together on stage, for the first time, four members of the collective (Masha, Sasha, Nastya and Kot) to tell their now legendary story. Battling Russia’s court system, along with its oppressive views, Pussy Riot: Riot Days is a visceral staging of their chaotic 40 second church protest and circumstances leading to their arrest, court proceedings and subsequent two-year imprisonment. Initially an exclusive all-female membership focussing on feminist principles Pussy Riot: Riot Days expands to also include two dynamic male performers, complimenting the already dense aural landscape with fierce trumpet and percussion meshed with driving, affronting narration. Riot Days is an in-your-face punk experience, members interactively and explosively engaging with audience via a bombardment of visual and aural assaults; the intensity progressively rising in waves, only faltering at brief intervals for performers and audience members alike to catch a breath before launching at the jugular once again. Throughout the relentless barrage of colour, light and blasting music the six-piece intensify recounts of interactions with police, court secretaries and prosecutors with translated slogans such as ‘Crush Putin’ projected high above whilst throwing water over an increasingly hot and sweaty crowd. Trumpet and sax simultaneously collide, and frenzied, gull-like vocal screams expound upon human rights violations. Pussy Riot: Riot Days is captivating, intentionally intimidating and unfalteringly unapologetic. A sensory overload, and uncompromising performance art. Utterly unmissable! 5 stars Jenna Bonavita Pussy Riot: Riot Days continues at RCC Fringe – The Attic until Sun 3 Mar. Book at FringeTIX on 1300 621 255 or adelaidefringe.com.au. Click HERE to purchase your tickets. #ADLfringe #RCCfringe