British actors will read testimony from trial at free event proposed by playwright EV Crowe as part of global day of action

The Royal Court in London will stage verbatim readings of testimony given by members of Pussy Riot in their trial on the morning the verdict is due to be delivered.

Proposed by the playwright EV Crowe, the event will be part of a global day of action called for by the families and defence lawyers of the three bandmates, Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, Maria Alekhina and Yekaterina Samutsevich.

The women were arrested in March over a protest at a Moscow cathedral against the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, and charged with hooliganism motivated by religious hatred. The verdict is due at 3pm local time on Friday.

An hour before, at 11am BST, British actors will take to a small stage in the Royal Court's cafe bar to deliver rehearsed readings of the testimony, translated from Russian by Sasha Dugdale, who has been following live feeds from the trial. She described their words as "extraordinary, poetic, full of passion and innocence".

Crowe, whose latest play, Hero, opens at the Royal Court in November, will introduce the free event. She is also organising a symposium and debate on the subject later in the year, and said Pussy Riot's activism had "inspired me in a way no other cultural movement in my lifetime has captured my imagination.

"What Pussy Riot does is take a stand, through art, and then maximise its impact through social media. They are women who make me want to understand the world I'm living in, to write about it, and to be brave whatever the cost," Crowe said.

The Royal Court's artistic director, Dominic Cooke, said: "The Pussy Riot trial is of concern to those who believe that the right of artists to question the actions of the state is central to an egalitarian society. As a London home for theatre artists to ask challenging questions, the Royal Court feels like the obvious place for the women's words to be heard in English."

• The first Russian motherboard based on ARM-processor Baikal-M