PUSSY RIOT: RIOT DAYS

A story of resistance, repression and revolution — between concert, rally, theatre and political action.

Riot Days is not a concert. Based on Maria Alyokhina's books Riot Days (2017) and Political Girl (2025), the performance combines live music, spoken word, theatre and documentary footage. Punk and electronics meet personal testimonies. The focus is on resistance against dictatorship — and the question of what it means to continue this resistance.

The show was developed by producer Alexander Cheparukhin together with Maria Alyokhina and has been touring internationally since 2016. Conceived as a never-finished piece, it has now been shown in more than 40 countries. Riot Days is changing with political developments in Russia and Ukraine. Each performance reacts to the present, mentions the names of political prisoners and documents Putin's political repression and war crimes.

The story is told from Alyokhina's perspective. In 2012, she was sentenced to two years in prison for her involvement in Punk Prayer, the protest action by Pussy Riot against Putin in Moscow's Christ the Savior Cathedral. She initially stayed in Russia and only fled the country in 2022 after the start of the full Russian invasion of Ukraine.

On stage

Maria (Masha) Alyokhina voice. author. Member of Pussy Riot.

In 2012, Alyokhina was sentenced to two years in prison for the performance Punk Prayer. During her detention, she sued the prison administration for the treatment of the inmates — and won the lawsuit. She wrote about those years in Riot Days, and in Political Girl about life after that. She also curated Velvet Terrorism, the first overview exhibition on the work of Pussy Riot, which traveled from Reykjavik to museums in Europe and North America. In 2025, she was sentenced in absentia to 13 years in prison in Moscow.

Alexander Cheparukhin producer. Initiator of Riot Days.

Cheparukhin is the founder of GreenWave Music. When members of Pussy Riot were jailed in 2012, he mobilized Paul McCartney, Peter Gabriel, Patti Smith, Sting, and hundreds of other supporters. He is one of the driving forces behind the book Riot Days and developed the show from it.

Alina Petrova (Rov) composer. multi-instrumentalist. Member of Pussy Riot.

Petrova opens the show alone on stage with a violin. Her work combines violin and viola with modular synthesizers and live programming. She founded the KYMATIC ensemble and completed a master's degree in sonology at the Royal Conservatory in The Hague. In 2025, she was sentenced in absentia to eight years in prison by a Moscow court.

Taso Pletner actor. Theatre and documentary theatre director. Member of Pussy Riot.

Pletner studied at the Moscow Art Theater School with Dmitry Brusnikin. His collaboration with Icelandic artist Ragnar Kjartansson marked the start of the Velvet Terrorism exhibition in Reykjavik. The show was then shown in Montreal, Vancouver and Munich, among others. In 2025, Pletner was sentenced in absentia by a Moscow court to eleven years in prison.

Eric Breitenbach drums and samples. Member of Pussy Riot. Co-founder of New Age Doom.

Breitenbach shapes the live sound of Riot Days with drums and samples and has been touring with production since June 2025. He also plays live music for Alyokhina's literary performances of Political Girl in Europe and Great Britain.