MONTREAL!!!
Production of the Year. More Than Theatre.
InsideOut is a three-act theatre performance created by a professional team on a volunteer basis. It’s for those who miss truly contemporary theatre, that feels alive, urgent, and in dialogue with its audience.
The performance is inspired by the book "Dawn Will Surely Come" by ОVD-Info and is built from real letters sent from around the world to political prisoners in Russia — and their replies — extending a thread of dialogue from “outside” to “inside.”
What matters here is not only what happens on stage, but what is born in the room: presence, a shared tone, a sense of connection. Empathy turns into action.
Come to listen, to feel, and to spend an evening with people who resonate with your values and your voice.
Starring Miriam Sekhon (ref) and Erik Athavale.
Live musical improvisation - Alessandro Garino, Elyze Venne-Deshaies, Kulusé Souriant, Sean Burke.
**This project was inspired, initiated, and created by RCDA volunteers without external funding. Our team has worked on it for more than a year on a volunteer basis. The production is made possible through contributions from participants and crowdfunding. You can become part of the project — support it with a donation and be credited in the final titles.
TICKETS IN BIO
A year ago, InsideOut was just a question.
Today it’s a growing community — artists, activists, musicians, editors, and people carrying lived experience across borders.
We filmed our first block, found a home for the premiere, and are preparing to go deeper.
Step by step.
Thank you for walking this road with us 🧡
InsideOut is a multimedia art project uniting Russian- and English-speaking communities around the world through empathy, art, and action.
We bring to life real letters from political prisoners via film, theatre, and music.
Our goal is to help people recognize and overcome learned helplessness — the feeling that “nothing can be changed.”
Through art, we reconnect those inside and outside the walls, showing that solidarity is a form of freedom.
You can join us:
Write a letter to a political prisoner
Support our upcoming stage premiere in Montreal (Spring 2026)
Share our stories to keep these voices alive
Links in bio 🔗
Project site: https://rcda.ca/inside-out-eng/
Support: /en-CA/donation-form/donate-to-amplify-their-voices
Inside Out art-book
This spring, I finished a zine for Inside Out (Наружу Изнутри) — a film by RCDA based on real letters from political prisoners. Letters were collected through OVD-info’s Vestochka service. Each spread is based on one letter from a political prisoner with the text of this letter rewritten by hand. Black-and-white palette with orange accents references the visual identity of OVD-Info and the film itself. The title design from the book was later adapted as an official film logo.
When I started working on this project, I noticed how well the original letters were written. Complex emotions, detailed observations, and thoughts condensed into relatively short pieces of text. I spent an absurd amount of time sketching and re-sketching spreads, trying to draw everything I am seeing between the lines. I wanted to make illustrations feel like an extension of the letters, visualize the unsaid words rather than general information.
While drawing, I kept asking myself: do these illustrations really convey everything I am seeing in these texts?
I hope they do.
Will share more illustrations separately later on, but I'm curious: do you want to see more finished artworks or behind-the-scenes process (basically how I draw)?
We’re gradually going through our archives and sharing photos from the premiere of the play in Montreal!
The evening was opened by Olga Babina @o_la_lya , one of the directors of the Russian Canadian Democratic Alliance @rcda_adcr@rcda_montreal . On screen was the incomparable Erik Athavale @eathavale , while on stage was the incredible Miriam Sekhon @magoga . Behind the instruments were Alessandro Garino, Elyze Venne-Deshaies @lyzlaloba , Kulusé Souriant @kulusesouriant , and Sean Burke @sean_ea_burke . Behind the camera were director Lada Iskanderova @moonelephant_gsm and cinematographer Patryk Szmidt @patrykszmidtdp .
But this evening would not have been possible without dozens of other people involved behind the scenes — volunteers, technicians, stage crew, coordinators, artists, friends, and everyone who helped bring this project to life. Thank you. Your work, care, and belief in the project made this night possible.
Over the coming months, we’ll be sharing more about how the event unfolded, the creators behind the project, and the artists who joined the movement.
INSIDE OUT × OVD-Info
Based on the book Dawn Will Surely Come by OVD-Info, INSIDE OUT is a three-act documentary theatre performance built from real letters to political prisoners in Russia and their replies.
These are letters from strangers to strangers — messages of care, attention, daily life, courage, and solidarity. On stage, they become a living dialogue between those outside prison walls and those forced to live within them.
Three acts. Live music. Verbatim theatre. Real voices.
INSIDE OUT is not only something to watch. It is something to enter, to feel, and to help create together in the room.
A performance about presence, empathy, and the refusal to let people disappear into silence.
Thank you OVD-Info for everything you are doing! ♥️
On April 16 we’re going live at Le Balcon
performing and filming our @insideout_letters project with the audience.
It’s based on letters to and from political prisoners in Russia.
The show is in English, and it tries to make sense of how russia got here, with the war, the repression, and everything around it.
We’ll show a two-part film (one with Erik Athavale, one with me), and I’ll connect it all through something between a lecture and a slightly unusual stand-up, accompanied by four incredible jazz musicians improvising live.
The whole evening will be filmed and later turned into a feature film.
Here are some images from our shoot in Winnipeg last fall.
Doors: 18.00
Start: 19:00
Link to tickets in profile
📷 @aesthetic_jenni
#verbatim #verbatimtheatre #immersive #mtl #montreal
InsideOut / «Наружу Изнутри» — это больше, чем спектакль.
16 апреля в Монреале мы покажем документальный театральный проект, созданный на основе реальных писем политзаключённым и их ответов, вдохновлённый книгой «Рассвет обязательно наступит» от ОВД-Инфо.
Это история о том, как письмо становится жестом присутствия. О том, как несколько строк могут напомнить человеку в заключении, что снаружи его не забыли.
На премьере можно будет приобрести книгу и, возможно, написать своё первое письмо.
Le Balcon, Montreal April 16, 7 PM
Билеты в шапке профиля.
#InsideOut #НаружуИзнутри #Монреаль #театр #документальныйтеатр политзаключённые ovdinfo
Montreal! Performance InsideOut will take place this Thursday April 16! Tickets are on sale! Follow the link in the profile header.
Монреаль! Театральная постановка InsideOut состоится уже в этот четверг 16 апреля! Билеты на премьеру уже в продаже. Ссылка в шапке профиля.
#montreal #монреаль #performance #spectacle #lebalcon
Meet the musicians of InsideOut:
Elyze Venne-Deshaies (saxophone) — a multi-instrumentalist, composer, and artistic director whose work moves between improvisation and composition, treating sound as a living language.
Alessandro Garino (piano) — a Montreal-based composer and pianist working across film, video games, and performance, blending classical, jazz, and modern sound design into immersive sound worlds.
Kulusé Souriant (drums) — a drummer shaped by Caribbean roots and jazz traditions, whose playing is both deeply grounded and exploratory, developed across Toulouse, New York, and Montreal.
Sean Burke (double bass) — a bassist and composer known for his melodic sensitivity and depth of tone, with years of experience performing across North America and training in New York.
Together, they create a space where music doesn’t accompany the story — it becomes part of it.
Live in Montreal, April 16.
Montreal, April 16! Tickets are already on sale! Follow the link in the profile header.
Монреаль, 16 апреля! Билеты на премьеру уже в продаже. Ссылка в шапке профиля.
#montreal #монреаль
