Pussy Riot's Anti-Putin Punk Performance Comes to Milan's Teatro Arcimboldi

The Russian feminist punk protest group Pussy Riot will perform their show "Riot Days: Pussy Riot kicks off anti-war" at Milan's Teatro Arcimboldi on September 11, 2022, as the only Italian stop on their world tour. The performance, directed by Yury Muravitsky, artistic director of Moscow's Taganka Theatre, blends live music, theater, video, and performance art. It centers on the personal story of Maria Alyokhina, the group's leader and author of the eponymous book, who led the 2012 protest at Moscow's Cathedral of Christ the Saviour, where the group performed a "punk prayer" against Putin's electoral fraud, resulting in two-year prison sentences for some members. The show includes explicit songs such as "Putin Will Teach You To Love The Motherland," "I Can't Breathe," "Chaika," "Organs," and "Make America Great Again," alongside themes of gender fluidity, social inclusivity, matriarchy, universal love, decentralization of power, anarchism, and anti-authoritarianism. The anti-Putin protest gains heightened significance amid Russia's invasion of Ukraine and the ongoing war.