Insulted Belarussia Artist Talk on Thursday 19 November 2020
Channel: HowlRound Theatre Commons
Date: 19/11/2020

Special Artists Talk:
Insulted Belarus(sia): The Play. The Documentary. The Movement.
8 a.m. PST (San Francisco, UTC -8) / 10 a.m. CST (Chicago, UTC -6) / 11 a.m. EST (Boston, UTC -5)

Playwright Andrei Kureichik (from temporary exile in Bulgaria)
Translator John Freedman (from Moscow)
RogueMachine co-artistic director Guillermo Cienfuegos (L.A.)
Arlekin artistic director Igor Goylak (Boston)
Moderated by Dr. Barbara Wallace Grossman

The backstory of Andrei Kureichik’s Insulted. Belarus(sia) is quite extraordinary. It is the rare case of a genuine work of dramatic art being created in real time about a topic that is self-destructing and transforming furiously even as each word is being tapped out on a computer keyboard.

When Belarusian president Alexander Lukashenko (“the last dictator in Europe”) chose on August 9, 2020, to falsify an election he had lost in a landslide, he thought he was just bending a nation to suit his own needs as he had done for 26 years. In fact, he set off a revolution, as the Belarusian people poured onto the streets to support Svetlana Tikhanovskaya, the woman they actually had elected. He also angered, and inspired, Kureichik, Belarus’s top playwright and screenwriter, famed for his good-natured comedies. While posting a prodigious amount of exhortative information about the protests online, Kureichik began putting together a play that is based, in part, on statements made by Lukashenko and Tikhanovskaya, who are represented in the play as OLDSTER and NOVICE. Their statements are interwoven with five imagined characters who speak the language and thoughts that were coming to Kureichik fast and heavy.

These five other characters present an overview of Belarusian society. MENTOR isan aging teacher who believes in “law and order” and helps guarantee Lukashenko’s reelections every four years by falsifying results. CORPSE is a young soccer fan with too much energy to burn who is sick of living under the same president his entire life. AVIAN is a storm trooper who trained during the Maidan revolution in Ukraine and is now in Belarus to put down rebellions there. CHEERFUL isa high-spirited, loving young woman who believes in asking the Universe to send her good vibes, and whose sister is to marry the storm trooper. Finally, there is YOUTH, Lukashenko’s teenaged son Kolya, who is being groomed for the presidency, but would prefer to play internet games.

The lives of every one of these people – with the possible exception of Kolya, for his debt to destiny is yet to be paid – will be impacted tragically by Lukashenko’s decision to crush the revolution with violence and torture. And yet, the resulting play – hard-hitting as it is – is filled with humor, hope and dignity.

Kureichik completed Insulted. Belarus(sia) on September 9. He sent it to translator John Freedman at 3:13 p.m. Central European Time, asking if I would translate it and organize a few readings in order to spread the word about the events in Belarus. Within ten minutes, John had lined up six theatres, including New York Theatre Workshop, even without a script they could read. Three days later John finished the translation and got it out to dozens more theatres. As of early November, 66 companies in 22 countries are participating in the Insulted. Belarus(sia) Worldwide Reading Project. More will join soon.

Andrei Kuriechik was able to escape from Belarus, avoiding arrest, and will join this talk from an undisclosed location while in hiding.

https://howlround.com/happenings/livestreaming-performances-and-conversation-insulted-belarussia-andrei-kureichik