Political theatre turned punk gig turned call to arms, Pussy Riot’s Riot Days is an unflinching blast of protest art. At Summerhall’s Dissection Room, the Russian collective fire off pounding beats, stark captions, and unapologetic political fury. It’s powerful, messy, and confrontational, from the raw delivery to the deliberately provocative splashes of water into the crowd. You might not like every tactic, but you’ll leave knowing you’ve been in the same room as the real thing.
There are protest gigs, and then there’s Pussy Riot. The Russian art-punk collective’s Riot Days tour has been roaring through cities worldwide, bringing their mix of punk gig, political rally, and theatre piece to stages that can barely contain them. At Summerhall’s Dissection Room, it’s all on top of you: three women and a drummer, a drum kit, synths, blistering spoken word, and a wall of captions that leave you in no doubt about where they stand.
This isn’t a nostalgia act or a cosy “greatest hits” package. It’s a living, breathing protest. The captions hit hard: Putin’s Russia, the war in Ukraine, the killing of Alexei Navalny. The text is relentless, in both English and Russian, pushing you to keep up with its anger and urgency. They don’t pull any punches, and that’s entirely to their credit.
The three women at the centre of this show are not here to entertain in the conventional sense. They’re here to testify. They perform with a rawness that’s almost unnerving: voices breaking into screams, beats that feel like a march, horns and synth lines cutting through like air-raid sirens. You don’t have to agree with their politics to see they believe every word.
Then there’s the water. If you’ve read about this tour before, you might know they’ve made a habit of dousing the front rows, and they did it again here. Water bottles upended over their own heads, then splashed, deliberately, into the faces of audience members at the barrier. It’s an act that’s part punk ritual, part provocation. And provocative it certainly is: in Scotland, deliberately splashing water on someone without their consent can be construed as assault. I doubt Pussy Riot care. If anything, the indifference to how it lands is the point, an anti-polite, anti-permission gesture in a culture that still prefers its protest in neat, ticketed packages.
That makes this a tricky one to review. On one hand, the use of water is confrontational, uncomfortable, and arguably risky in a small venue packed with live electrical gear. On the other, it’s perfectly in keeping with their ethos: break the rules, break the frame, remind you you’re in a space where the usual comfort and control don’t apply.
Musically, it’s not subtle, nor should it be. The beats hammer, the chants repeat like mantras, the projections and captions layer meaning on top of meaning until you’re immersed. It’s theatre of protest, distilled and amplified.
By the end, you’re not applauding so much as standing in acknowledgement of having been witness to something. I left feeling conflicted but also grateful to have seen it. The water might divide opinion, but the political commitment, the fearlessness, and the authenticity of their performance are beyond dispute.
Riot Days isn’t here to make you comfortable. It’s here to remind you there are still people risking everything to speak out. At Summerhall last night, that reminder landed with the force of a drumbeat, and sometimes, a splash
22:00 Daily Till 23rd August
https://www.edfringe.com/tickets/whats-on/pussy-riot-riot-days
Reviewer: Greg Holstead
Reviewed: 12th August 2025
North West End UK Rating:
Running time – 1hr