The Insulted Plays By Andrei Kureichik

"Andrei Kureichik ingeniously manages to seize the reader or spectator of his plays by both brain and  heart, intellect and emotion. Through his kaleidoscopic, decentered, at times plotless, at times funny,  view of political turmoil, Kureichik magnifies the deep, ongoing persistence of the Belarusian and  Russian people against autocracy and corruption. Existential and engrossing, the plays in this volume range from testimony of real political prisoners to profound science fiction. They urgently need to be read and staged in our world today" — Alisa Ballard Lin, The Ohio State University

The Insulted Plays make up a tetralogy that begins in a state of strife in the Russia of 2017, goes on to inhabit the vortex of a transformational Belarus, and ends at an Archimedean point to the planet Earth itself.

Like an “all against all,” Insulted. Russia tracks the sharp divisions in society — a dissevering that is fated for clashes.

Beginning on election night, 2020, Insulted. Belarus dramatises the birthing of a body politic and the vicious, abortive intervention in response to it.

The Voices of the New Belarus resound as the groundswell of the nation: a polyvocal, verbatim chorus that attests to the blood-stained aftermath of widespread protests. Their voices form a pillar of every kind of strength.

Like a microcosm suspended in the cosmos, the space capsule of Insulted. Planet houses an international crew that is riven by historical tensions and pitched by a sudden war on Earth.

Although animated by acts that strike like a slap in the face of our humanity, The Insulted Plays direct us on — to decency, hope, fellow-feeling.

Translated by John Freedman 

Paperback