Pussy Riot: Riot Days @ Summerhall, Edinburgh, 8 Nov

Ten years on from Pussy Riot's famous Punk Prayer performance protest in Moscow, the feminist protest art collective is touring their latest piece, Riot Days. Tonight they play a sold out show in Summerhall's Dissection Room for what group leader Maria Alyokhina calls their "anti-war tour". The show is a mix of memoir, protest, and performance protest; the group stands under a projection screen, which shows English translations of the lyrics, chapter titles, and relevant imagery. Almost completely played through, the show is a tightly scripted masterpiece of feminist rebellion. 

The early numbers cover "male hysteria", medical imperialism, liberation, and anarchy. The group uses spoken word, electronic accompaniment, drums, and flute to tell the story of Pussy Riot's Punk Prayer through the arrest and incarceration of the group in general, and Alyokhina in particular. The lyrics are sometimes direct, sometimes poetic, and always impactful. "Crush Putin," the screen reads. "This is Pussy Riot church."

The show is an unrelenting onslaught of noise and information. It is a startling feat of theatrical immersion – watching from the back of the room, we feel equal parts rage and exaltation rise in the throat. Pussy Riot frame their story as instructions: how to upset the Russian state, how to stand trial, how to survive in a penal colony. 

The most galvanising chapter of the show is a deeply emotional account of the cruelties Alyokhina and her bandmates suffered in prison. It is a carceral odyssey: dense, emotional, and larger than its protagonist. "If you hear anything about humanism in Russian prison," the translation reads, "cover your ears and run away." To put it tritely, Pussy Riot reminds us of the power of art to threaten state power. The state's harsh response validates the danger Pussy Riot poses. For Pussy Riot, feminist liberation, anti-war efforts, and queer liberation are all connected. 

The room feels electric. An audience member tries to talk to a friend over the music, but someone shushes them. If Pussy Riot imparts anything to us, it is that we have to pay attention. "Freedom doesn't exist unless you fight for it every day," they recite. "Putin likes your indifference." At the end of the piece, the group turns their attention to the war in Ukraine. Alyokhina speaks to us more freely, saying: "We didn't have a choice of where to be born, but we have a choice of how to live." Alyokhina warns against national exceptionalism. As the UK's Policing Act comes into effect, we're reminded that fascism is on the rise all over the world. "Do not avoid war," Alyokhina warns. "Don't think that it's far away. It's not." Pussy Riot's anti-war tour is as stirring as it is mesmerising, as raw as it is genius.