BFT returns to the Barbican, London with the UK premiere of KS6: Small Forward

BFT is delighted to return to the Barbican, London in 2025 for the UK premiere of its latest stage production, KS6: Small Forward (5-8 February, press night: 6 February) which follows critically and publicly acclaimed stage productions, Dogs of Europe, in 2022 and the Olivier Award nominated, King Stakh’s Wild Hunt, in 2023. 

KS6: Small Forward is theatre turbocharged with the electrifying energy of a basketball match and tells the extraordinary true life story of Belarusian basketball superstar turned activist, Katsiaryna (Katya) Snytsina. Directed by BFT’s co-founding Artistic Directors, Natalia Kaliada and Nicolai Khalezin, it traces the stratospheric highs of twenty years on the court, and the dramatic events in 2020 that set Katya on a new path as a prominent critic of the Belarusian dictatorship on the international political stage. 

Performing in the Barbican’s award-winning experimental space, The Pit, the two-time Olympian tells her own story in her professional theatre debut performing alongside clubland’s rising star, DJ Blanka Barbara, in this soul-shaking show about being fearlessly true to yourself. 

KS6: Small Forward co-director, Natalia Kaliada, said: “Katya is the kind of superwoman that the world needs today, an everyday superwoman. There is so much sincerity in her story, the story she shares with us in KS6: Small Forward. She opens her life to us: a women’s basketball player from Belarus, two-time Olympian who bravely stepped out of her comfortable life bubble to challenge the dictator, say openly that she is gay, and committed to fighting for the release of political prisoners in her homeland. Her honesty is so powerful. She says it simply: she didn’t see what the dictator was doing to the people of Belarus. She didn’t realise what was happening all around her for many many years. But when at last she did see it, she decided to do something about it. And now she bravely shares her story with us, to inspire audiences to use their own everyday superpowers to stand up against tyranny and injustice.” 

Performances at the Barbican follow a successful premiere at New York’s Tony Award-winning La MaMa Experimental Theatre Club in September 2024 and KS6: Small Forward continues its world tour with performances in June 2025 with Théâtres de la Ville de Luxembourg as part of the 10th anniversary edition of its cross-disciplinary and creativity-focused TalentLAB. 3 

BFT turns 20: democracy and human rights on the world stage 

An in-conversation event with Sir Stephen Fry, BFT’s co-founding Artistic Director, Natalia Kaliada MBE, and KS6: Small Forward star, Katsiaryna Snytsina 

Ahead of the press night performance of KS6: Small Forward on Thursday 6 February, BFT is thrilled to be joined by its long-standing supporter, Sir Stephen Fry, for the in-conversation event, BFT turns 20: democracy and human rights on the world stage. 

The much-loved stage and screen luminary will be joined by BFT’s co-founding Artistic Director, Natalia Kaliada, and KS6: Small Forward star, Katsiaryna Snytsina, for a wide-ranging discussion about two extraordinary decades on the world stage using politics, art – and now sport – to build a movement for democracy, human rights and freedoms. 

Get your tickets here: https://www.barbican.org.uk/whats-on/2025/event/belarus-free-theatre-ks6-small-forward

WRITTEN BY: Nura Arooj