Digital programme: Kitchen Revolution

Original Concept Natalia Kaliada and Nicolai Khalezin   
Moderators Nicolai Khalezin and Katsiaryna (Katya) Snytsina
Co-Moderator Daniella Kaliada
Menu Curation Daniella Kaliada with Natalia Kaliada   
Provocateurs Peter Jukes and Stephen Sackur (31 March) / Carole Cadwalladr and Stephen Sackur (1 April)

Kitchen Revolution is an open forum to discuss, debate and dream of a better future, inspired by conversations over supper in the Soviet Union where friends, family, neighbours and colleagues gathered to talk freely.

Belarus Free Theatre and the Barbican intend for Kitchen Revolution to celebrate this sense of community, to inspire peaceful discussion, and to create a space where potentially opposing ideas can be approached with respect.

Stephen Sackur, Peter Jukes and Carole Cadwalladr are acclaimed journalists whose bylines include The Times, BBC, The Observer, The Telegraph, The Nerve and Byline Times. As provocateurs, they will share conversation starters designed to prompt thoughtful discussion amongst audience members related to questions around democracy, the arts, community and freedom.

Audience members are encouraged to join in the debate, moderated by Belarus Free Theatre's Co-Artistic Director, Nicolai Khalezin and Katsiaryna Snytsina, Belarusian basketballer and star of BFT's previous show KS6: Small Forward, and co-moderated by Daniella Kaliada.

We invite our audience to arrive to their visit empowered by the chance to share ideas and learn from one another, while maintaining a considerate frame of mind.

Carole Cadwalladr 
Provocateur
Carole Cadwalladr is an award-winning investigative journalist and author whose reporting explores the impact of technology on democracy and society. She gained international recognition for her groundbreaking investigation into the Cambridge Analytica–Facebook data scandal, work that earned her a Pulitzer Prize nomination and the Orwell Prize for Political Journalism.​ 

A longtime writer for The Observer, she has also contributed to the Guardian and other major outlets, exposing global disinformation networks and the misuse of data in political campaigns. Her TED Talks on these subjects have reached millions worldwide, and she continues to advocate for transparency, accountability, and integrity in public life.​ 

Carole​ is a founding member of The Nerve​, a fearless, female-founded media title set up by a collective of five former Guardian and Observer journalists who believe that the UK needs more truly independent journalism.

Peter Jukes
Provocateur
Peter Jukes was an award-winning playwright and TV drama writer until he discovered facts were more important than fiction, and became a journalist in 2012, covering phone hacking, the Daniel Morgan murder, and then co-founding Byline Times, the investigative newspaper now rivalling The Spectator and New Statesman in regular sales.

Daniella Kaladia
Menu Curation / Moderator
Daniella Alexandra Kaliada is a curator and cultural producer working across contemporary art and political context in Central and Eastern Europe. She is the curator, with Natalia Kaliada MBE, of Official. Unofficial. Belarus., a Collateral Event of the 61st International Art Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia, an immersive, multi-sensory exhibition that will explore how art is made, censored and experienced under authoritarian power and constant surveillance. Daniella has chaired public discussions at DOX Centre for Contemporary Art in Prague, was a guest speaker at the Martin E. Segal Centre in New York, and curated a photography exhibition by Anna Goltsberg following the outbreak of the war in Ukraine. She has delivered keynote speeches and testimonies to the UK Parliament, the Luxembourg Parliament, and the Council of Europe, and has provided briefings to the US State Department. As a translator and dramaturgical collaborator, she has contributed to more than a dozen Belarus Free Theatre productions, including the Olivier Award-nominated opera King Stakh’s Wild Hunt and the international touring production, Dogs of Europe.

Natalia Kaladia
Original Concept / Menu Curation
Natalia Kaliada is the co-founding Artistic Director of BFT, an award-winning theatre-maker, writer and director. As an internationally renowned diplomat and human rights campaigner, Natalia has pioneered a unique method of transversal lobbying and campaigning, uniting artistic, geopolitical, environmental and human rights concerns, to bring systematic change to different societies. Working alongside We Remember Foundation and Free Belarus Now, Natalia took part in high-profile negotiations with Hillary Clinton, Former US Secretary of State, and Hon. William Hague, Former Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, focused on the implementation of targeted economic sanctions against Alexander Lukashenko and others responsible for the repression of the Belarusian people. Forced to leave her home in Minsk for her work as a political campaigner and as the co-founder of BFT – the only theatre in Europe banned by its government on political grounds – she was granted political asylum in the UK in 2011. 

Natalia originated the Global Artistic Campaign Free Belarus which has received the support of numerous leading contemporary artists and politicians including BFT Patrons, the late Sir Tom Stoppard, President Vaclav Havel and Harold Pinter. In 2000/2001, the US State Department gave her two Meritorious Honour Awards for Personal Bravery and Courage. Natalia has hosted masterclasses at world-leading universities and institutions including: Central Saint Martins, RADA, LAMDA and CCODS (in the UK); ENSAT, Lyon (in France); Brown University, Tisch School, NYU and Georgetown University (in the US). Natalia created the Women 4 Women Alliance in 2020, to honour and amplify the voices of the women of Belarus bravely resisting the dictatorship. The Alliance was first launched together with Hillary Clinton, Madeleine Albright and Senator Jeanne Shaheen, and continues to keep the world’s attention on the impact of war and dictatorship on the children of Ukraine and Belarus through public events which include the panel discussion hosted by Cate Blanchett at the Barbican Theatre in autumn 2023. Natalia is a Committee Member for the Magnitsky Human Rights Award, which recognises work in human rights and anti-corruption – past winners include BFT, Senator John McCain and human rights barrister, Geoffrey Robertson. BFT received an Olivier Award nomination for Outstanding Achievement in Opera in 2024 for King Stakh’s Wild Hunt, the company’s first-ever foray into opera. In June 2023, Natalia was awarded the MBE for Services to Theatre in the King’s Birthday Honours.

Nicolai Khalezin
Original Concept / Moderator
Nicolai Khalezin is the co-founding Artistic Director of BFT, an award-winning director, playwright, designer, educator, political campaigner and journalist. Prior to co-founding BFT in 2005, Nicolai was Editor-in-Chief of three of the leading social-political weekly newspapers in Belarus – Name, News and Our Freedom – all of which were shut down by the regime. The journalistic approach to theatre-making that has characterised all of BFT’s stage productions over the past two decades owes much to his rigorous editorial method. Another significant influence on his theatrical vision is a deep love and knowledge of contemporary art. Nicolai was the owner of the only contemporary art gallery in Minsk, which was also closed down by the authorities. His works were exhibited at the Istanbul Biennale, Milan Expo, in Rome, Berlin and at the Moscow Centre of Contemporary Art. Nicolai served time in prison in Belarus for his involvement in political campaigns and was recognised as a Prisoner of Conscience by Amnesty International. This experience inspired one of BFT’s most celebrated shows, Generation Jeans, an autobiographical duologue about rock music and resistance. Written, directed and performed by Nicolai Khalezin, with live music by DJ Laurel, Generation Jeans has been performed more than 100 times around the world to date, including at the home of President Vaclav Havel on his invitation in 2008, and at the UK’s House of Commons together with BFT Trustee, Jude Law, in 2012. Forced into exile for his work as a political campaigner and as the co-founder of BFT – the only theatre in Europe banned by its government on political grounds – Nicolai was granted political asylum in the UK in 2011. 

Playwriting credits for BFT include: King Stakh’s Wild Hunt, Dogs of Europe, Burning Doors, The Master had a Talking Sparrow, Discover Love, Trash Cuisine, Time of Women, all of which he also directed, and BFT’s adaptation of King Lear which was staged at the Globe to Globe Festival as part of the London 2012 Cultural Olympiad. BFT received an Olivier Award nomination for Outstanding Achievement in Opera in 2024 for King Stakh’s Wild Hunt, the company’s first-ever foray into opera. In June 2023, Nicolai was awarded the MBE for Services to Theatre in the King’s Birthday Honours.

Stephen Sackur
Provocateur
Stephen Sackur is a writer, broadcaster and internationally renowned journalist. He was presenter of HARDtalk, the BBC’s flagship international current affairs interview show from 2005-2025. Stephen has interviewed Presidents, Prime Ministers and a host of high-profile guests from the worlds of culture, sport and business. In November 2010, Stephen was awarded the ‘International TV Personality of the Year Award’ by the Association of International Broadcasters. 

Before taking over HARDtalk, Stephen was based successively in Cairo, Jerusalem, Washington DC and Brussels as one of the BBC’s most senior foreign correspondents. In the US he interviewed Presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush, and covered the disputed 2000 US Presidential Elections, the Lewinsky scandal and the Clinton impeachment trial. He led the BBC’s coverage of 9/11 from Washington DC. In the Middle East he reported on the Oslo peace process, and the assassination of the Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin. 

Stephen Sackur is a graduate of Cambridge and Harvard Universities and has honorary doctorates from Warwick University and the Geneva School of International Diplomacy. His book On the Basra Road was published in 1991, and he is currently writing another book Hard Truth for Headline Press to be published in 2026. He is about to take up a role presenting on Times Radio and is a member of the Advisory Board of the international consultancy group ‘Forward Global’.

Katsiaryna (Katya) Snytsina
Co-Moderator
Katsiaryna (Katya) Snytsina is a Belarusian basketball-player-turned-activist. Born into a family of basketball enthusiasts, she began playing aged seven and took up her first professional engagement aged 17 with the first division French club, COB Calais. Katya made her debut with the Belarusian national team in 2005, in a memorable game against Norway which saw her score four points in just 12 minutes. From 2007 to 2009, she played for the Polish team, Lotos. It was there that her career really began to flourish with a win in the Polish Cup and silver medal in the Polish Championships. In 2007, Katya and the Belarusian team took Bronze in the European Championships, and the following year, in 2008, she played with them again at the Olympic Games in Beijing, where they finished in sixth place. She rejoined the national team in 2011 for the European Championships; it wasn’t a triumphant season overall, but Katya was top scorer. In the 2013/14 season Katya began playing for the Turkish team, Tarsus Belediyesi, before moving on to play in the French Championships with Basket Lattes Montpellier. The following season, she played briefly with DVTK in Hungary, before returning to Turkey to play for Hatay, where she won several titles. She spent, in total, four seasons with the club, winning two Presidential cups, and silver in the Turkish Championships in 2016, a first in the club’s history. The same year, she played for the national team in her second Olympic Games, in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. In 2020, now as captain of the national team, she spoke out against the Belarusian regime in the wake of internationally discredited elections and a systematic crackdown on all opposition. The following year she stepped down as captain and was forced to leave her homeland. In 2022, now living in London, she signed with London Lions and played two seasons with them before announcing her retirement in 2024. Her final season with the Stratford-based team was record-breaking – five trophies in total – including the EuroCup title, which made London Lions the first-ever British team to win a major European trophy. Katya retired from professional basketball as one of the Top Three scorers in the history of the women’s EuroCup. In 2024, she made her professional theatre debut in Belarus Free Theatre’s KS6: Small Forward, which had its UK premiere at the Barbican in 2025, receiving an #Offies2026 nomination. The production is currently touring internationally with performances at the Théâtre de la Ville in Paris this May. 

Belarus Free Theatre
Belarus Free Theatre (BFT) is an Olivier Award nominated UK charity with a 20-year track-record of artistic excellence, pioneering a globe-spanning model of activism that uses theatre and art to build a movement for democracy, human rights, environmental concerns and artistic freedoms. Critically and publicly acclaimed for their provocative and breathtakingly physical theatre – tota​lling more than 50 stage productions performed in more than 40 countries around the world – BFT is also far more than a theatre. Working boldly across art-forms, BFT harnesses the power of the original and unexpected to direct the attention of audiences towards some of the most urgent issues of our time. BFT’s astonishing ability to innovate and transform ​​is one of their defining characteristics and wherever they are found – on theatre stages, in art galleries and in football stadiums, ​in schools and on screens big and small ​– they have a signature that is uniquely theirs, born from a visceral, personal understanding of the price of freedom and​ our responsibility to protect it. Natalia Kaliada and Nicolai Khalezin, ​the co-founding Artistic Directors of BFT, were awarded the Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) for Services to Theatre in the 2023 King’s Birthday Honours. BFT Life Patrons include Sir Tom Stoppard, Harold Pinter and President Václav Havel.

Kitchen Revolution is Belarus Free Theatre’s fourth collaboration with the Barbican following Dogs of Europe in 2020, the Olivier Award-nominated opera, King Stakh’s Wild Hunt in 2023, and the #Offies2026-nominated KS6: Small Forward which had its UK premiere at the Barbican in 2025 and is currently touring internationally with performances at the Théâtre de la Ville in Paris this May.