Finist the Bright Falcon

Stage reading, Divadlo X10 theatre company, directed by Ondřej Štefaňák. Finist the Bright Falcon, a documentary play about women who have married Islamic State fighters and followed them to Syria, won Russia’s prestigious Golden Mask theatre award. However, in 2023 the play became a pretext for its writer Svetlana Petriychuk (44) and director Evgenia Berkovich (39) – who had both publicly condemned Russia’s aggression against Ukraine – being tried and sentenced to six years in a penal colony. We wish to express our support for both unjustly imprisoned women with a stage reading presented by Divadlo X10, which was named theatre company of 2023 and regularly addresses the topic of human rights and freedoms. As a man of the theatre, Václav Havel was also jailed for several years for his views, and every sliver of support from the free world meant hope for him.