A nation’s failed efforts to unseat one of the world’s most reviled dictators comes to stunning, gut-punching life in City Garage Theatre’s English-language World Premiere of Andrei Kureichik’s Insulted. Belarus, an eye-opener to those like myself who knew little to nothing about recent events in Europe’s 13th largest country.

President Alexander Lukashenko may have come to power in Belarus’s first and (as yet) only free election back in 1994, but he’s made damned sure to use every means at his disposal, including torture and murder, to crush any and all opposition to his authoritarian regime in the ensuing twenty-nine years, most dramatically in 2020, when riots broke out after voting results were falsified to ensure his victory over housewife Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, whose candidacy was overwhelmingly supported by Belarusian voters in the country’s August 2020 presidential election.

The injustice of Tsikhanouskaya’s fraudulent “defeat” and her subsequent deportation to neighboring Lithuania prompted prominent Belarusian playwright Kureichik to write Insulted. Belarus from his forced exile abroad, a play that has so far received over 250 readings in 29 foreign languages, including one zoomed during the 2020 lockdown by L.A.’s Rogue Machine Theatre.

Santa Monica’s City Garage is, however, the first theater company to give Insulted. Belarus a fully-staged live production in English, and a superb one it is under Frédérique Michel’s inspired direction.

Kureichik’s ninety-minute drama introduces to seven Belarusians, some of them representing real people like Lukashenko himself (called “Oldster”), his then teenaged son Nikolai (dubbed “Youth”), and opposition candidate Tsikhanouskaya, aka “Novice.”

Composite characters complete the cast: “Corpse,” based in part on Alexander Taraikovsky, the first protester to be shot and killed by Belarusian police; “Cheerful,” based on the now imprisoned musician and political activist Maria Kalesnikava; “Raptor,” a storm trooper trained in Ukraine to torture and kill; and “Mentor,” a veteran schoolteacher in charge of falsifying voting results, election after election after election.

Soliloquies introduce us to each of these characters.

Oldster (Randall Wulff, transformed into a terrifyingly real Lukashenko look-alike) goes on a bombastic anti-theater rant as hilarious as it is ominous.

Cheerful (an infectiously ditzy Devin Davis-Lorton) gleefully reveals her life’s motto: “You just need to want it and you can change everything for the better,” though she is soon to discover that quite the opposite is true.

Corpse (Anthony M. Sannazzaro, charismatic and compelling) reveals both the thrills he gets from seeing his favorite soccer team win and the frustration he feels about a national leader who doesn’t “fight fair.”

Youth, (a spunky, spirited Courtney Brechemin) reveals every teen’s frustration with old-timers like his father, who can’t stop talking about how much better things were in those good old pre-Internet days.

Raptor (Andrew Loviska, as menacing as he is certain to be merciless) relishes his current life in Belarus (where everything is “black and white”) while waxing nostalgic for “the broads in Lugansk” who would “suck you dry.”

Novice (a forceful, fabulous Angela Beyer) frets about her country’s future as well as that of her imprisoned husband while sharing tips on how to cook up the tastiest meat patties in Belarus.

And Mentor (a scarily matter-of-fact Juliet Morrison) vaunts her 37 years of excellence as a teacher while lamenting the meddling presence of “observers” at the national elections she goes about fixing in Lukashenko’s favor every four years.

Then, introductions made, we become eyewitnesses to events leading up to and following 2020’s stolen election, as optimists are forced to face the harsh, violent realities of just how doomed to failure all their efforts have been.

Tough stuff indeed, and never more so than in director Michel’s visually vivid staging, backed by video designer’s Sannazzaro’s you-are-there projections, filling the upstage wall with the events described in Kureichik’s play, impressively translated by John Freedman, as they were captured on cell phones for the world to see.

No previous virtual reading can possibly have captured the utter horror of seeing characters brutally beaten before our eyes as Lukashenko himself remains ensconced in his comfy armchair relishing the chaos he has unleashed.

Charles A. Duncombe’s set, lighting, and audio designs add to the production’s punch as do Josephine Poinsot’s array of costumes, from Oldster’s distinctive dark suit and tie to Cheerful’s colorful white-and-red frock (with matching red-framed glasses) to Raptor’s storm trooper black.

Holly Dunnigan is assistant director.

As highly political as it is deeply personal, Insulted. Belarus is contemporary theater at its most informative and impactful. Its English-language premiere does its playwright, City Garage, and the people of Belarus proud.

City Garage, 2525 Michigan Ave. Building T1, Santa Monica.
www.CityGarage.org

–Steven Stanley
November 19, 2023
Photos: Paul M. Rubenstein

Tags: Andrei Kureichik, City Garage, John Freedman, Los Angeles Theater Review