On the day that President Vladimir Putin is in talks about a Ukrainian ceasefire with President Donald Trump one might expect a Summerhall production of Pussy Riot to be bursting at the seams, but not so.  Maybe this Russian protest art collective are losing their appeal.  Maybe we in the West have become inured to their talk about the horrifying and oppressive regime that Putin has created both in the Soviet state and in its victims homelands where his ambitious growth ambitions have manifest themselves.

Pussy Riot gained global notoriety in 2012 when three members, Maria Alyokhina, Nadezhda Tolokonnikova and Yekaterina Samutsevich were imprisoned for ‘hooliganism motivated by religious hatred’ for their performance inside Moscow’s Cathedral of Christ the Saviour. This globally renowned protest forms a large part of the show and is recounted in the form of a drum-heavy Punk rock aesthetic, complete with a powerpoint presentation, put together in a similarly homespun way, and found-footage of the hooliganism act and its repercussions.

The show itself is essentially a dramatisation of Maria Alyokhina’s life story, since that glorious day. A life that has made her fear for her and her family’s safety, hey, maybe even the audience’s. This has created real risk  for all involved in the collective whose work focuses heavily on women and LGBTQ+ rights in a less than liberal state. All the girls in the current Pussy Riot act are on the Russian State Wanted List we are told.

So, the production is an incendiary act of political defiance and it feels completely real, visceral and important.

The highlight, if you can call it that, is a video showing a Russian female journalist, Irina Slavina, who protested in 2020 by setting herself on fire on the steps of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, and died.  It’s truly frightening and the band stops for a moment of respect, accompanying a shocked silence across the room.

The pace is relentless.  The political sloganeering seemingly endless.  The issues are manifold as we hear of Putin’s so called wet dreams about power, the ‘Chinese Soup’ (that’s fed to starving masses – it’s simply boiling water), horrifying prison conditions, the Gulags, the massively over-embellished 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics that were only a massive global propaganda exercise, riots, state oppression in its many forms.

The list goes on.

We end with a tribute to Ukraine and finally the audience can emerge to the Western reality of a partying Summerhall courtyard, many moons  away from a living horror show in Putin’s homeland.

It’s chilling and deeply thought provoking.

‘Pussy Riot: Riot Days’ is at Summerhall – Dissection Room until Sat 23 Aug 2025 at 22:00