The Insulted. Belarus Worldwide Readings Project is a program of dramatic readings that expresses international solidarity with the people of Belarus. Insulted. Belarus is a play by Andrei Kureichik that highlights corruption and cruelty during the regime of President Alexander Lukashenko, specifically in the early days of the 2020-2021 Belarusian protests, and depicts the Belarusian people as courageous and peaceful in desperate times.
Andrei Kureichik, playwright, screenwriter and filmmaker wrote Insulted. Belarus () in August and September 2020 at the height of the protests. By the first week in November 2020, Insulted. Belarus had been translated into 18 languages and had been given 77 readings of various kinds in 22 countries. As of October 2024, the Insulted Belarus Worldwide Readings Project had helped to organize more than 280 readings, productions, videos, films, installations, and other kinds of events.Freedman, John, "Necessity as the Mother of Invention: A Personal Account of Creating Worldwide Play Projects in Support of Belarus and Ukraine, TDR 69:1 (T265) 2025, p. 5. These events took place in over 30 countries, with Insulted. Belarus being translated 24 times into 21 languages, and published in nine languages.“Insulted. Belarus” Worldwide Readings Project Briefly in Numbers,” an open-source document. Retrieved 11 June 2021.
The Play: Insulted. Belarus
Andrei Kureichik wrote Insulted. Belarus in Russian, which, with Belarusian language, is one of two official languages in Belarus. The original title, Обиженные. Беларусь(сия), includes a play on words that refers to the Soviet-era name of Belorussia, as well as to the contemporary name, Belarus. A literal English translation of the title might render it as The Insulted Ones. Belarus(this), where “Belarus(this)” also renders something close to “Belorussia.” This has been rendered in various ways in the many translations. (See The Translations below). As reported in The Stage, “Kureichik, a member of Belarus’ Coordination Council for the transition of power, wrote the play as a rapid response to those first days of protests, arrests and violence meted out by the police. He wrote it quickly, capturing the urgency of the situation and went into hiding immediately after finishing.” Kureichik described the writing of the play in an interview with BBC radio: “On the 9th of August, when Belarus elections started revolution in Belarus, of course, as a playwright, as a citizen, I decided to react somehow.”“The Cultural Frontline,” report by Lucy Ash, BBC radio, 5 December 2020 (starts at 12:40). Retrieved 11 June 2021.
The play, according to Lucy Ash of the BBC, “is a series of intersecting monologues which capture the unfolding drama in the capital of Minsk. Some of the script is imagined, some taken from political speeches and voices overheard in the streets.” Kureichik has noted that the play is based, in part, on actual statements made by Lukashenko (known as Oldster in the play) and his political rival Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya (Novice in the play), among others. On the Lukashenko character, Kureichik said, “I tried to understand him as well. I know his psychology. He thought people would love him forever. But it doesn’t work anymore.” Five other characters present an overview of Belarusian society:
Mentor, an ageing teacher who believes in “law and order” and helps guarantee Lukashenko's reelections every four years by falsifying results; Corpse, an excitable soccer fan who is sick of living under the same president his entire life, and who is based, in part, on Alexander Taraikovsky, the first protester to die in the nascent Belarusian revolution Raptor, a storm trooper who trained during the Euromaidan Revolution in Ukraine and is now in Belarus to put down rebellions there Cheerful, a high-spirited, loving young woman, based loosely on the musician and political activist Maria Kalesnikava, who believes the Universe sends her good vibes, and whose sister is to marry the storm trooper Youth, Lukashenko's teenaged son Nikolai (Kolya for short), who is being groomed for the presidency, but would prefer to play internet games.
The lives of each of these individuals – with the possible exception of Kolya, for his debt to destiny is yet to be paid – is impacted tragically by Lukashenko's decision to crush the revolution with violence and torture.
Translations
The first translation, into English, was done by John Freedman, who ultimately chose to simplify the play’s title because the pun could not be rendered sufficiently in the new language. Czech translator Martina Pálušová also writes about the difficulties of translating the title into Czech in an essay about the project.Pálušová, Martina, "The translator as a social activist in the digital age: An autoethnographic study of translating Insulted. Belarus as part of the Worldwide Readings Project," in Translation in Society (published online 12 March 2024: John Benjamins Publishing Company). https://doi.org/10.1075/tris.23012.pal Retrieved 14 March 2024. An excerpt of the English-language translation-in-progress – still called Insulted. Belarus(sia) – was published in Contemporary Theatre Review’s online Dispatches series, which provides immediate forums for important, developing themes in the theater world. The first full English text – as Insulted. Belarus – was published in Plays International & Europe magazine. Readings of the developing English translation were mounted in the United States, the United Kingdom, Hong Kong, Belgium, Finland, and Nigeria. English subtitles have been applied to videos made by the Divadlo Jozefa Gregora Tajovského (Jozef Gregor Tajovský Theater) in Zvolen, Slovakia; the Ivan Radoev Drama and Puppet Theater in Pleven, Bulgaria; and to a Russian-language film by Oksana Mysina.
Laertes Press published a book collection Insulted. Belarus; Voices of the New Belarus: Two Plays of Revolution titled Insulted. Belarus; Voices of the New Belarus: Two Plays of Revolution in 2023. In 2025 a second, expanded collection titled The Insulted Plays The Insulted Plays included two new works, Insulted. Russia, and Insulted. Planet.
Other translations Bulgarian as Обидените. Беларус(сия) by Maya Pechnikova Cantonese as侮辱。白(俄)羅斯 by Phoebe Chan Yuk Lan Czech as Uražení. Bělo(R)usko by Martina Pálušová Dutch as Geschoffeerd. Belarus by Maaika van Rijn Estonian as Valgevene 2020 by Mari Torga Finnish as Loukatut. Belarus(sia) by Anni Lappela Georgian аs გაბრაზებული ბელორუსები by Lasha Gogniashvili German as Die Beleidigten. Belarus(sland) by Georg Dox German as Die Beleidigten. Belarus(sland) by Olga Kouvchinnikova and Ingolf Hoppmann Hungarian by Ágnes Kali Hungarian as Insulted. Belarus(sia) by Éva Patko Italian as Insultati. Bielorussia by Giulia Dossi Latvian as Aizvainotie by Yanina Ivanova Lithuanian as Įžeisti. Baltarusi(j)a by Andrius Jevsejevas Mandarin as 侮辱。白(俄)羅斯 by Phoebe Chan Yuk Lan Pidgin as Katakata by Jerry Adesewo Polish as Skrzywdzeni. Białoruś by Jakub Adamowicz Polish as Białoruś obrażona by Dariusz Jezierski Portuguese as Insultada. Bielorrússia by Bianca Stanea and Rita Marinho Romanian as Insultați Belarus(ia) by Raluca Rădulescu Slovak as Urazení. Bielo(R)usko by Romana Štorková Maliti Spanish as Los Insultados. Belarús by Luis Sorolla Spanish as Insultado. Bielorrusia by Carolina Herzlt Swedish as Sista droppen. Belarus(sia) by Mikael Nydahl Ukrainian as Ображені.Білорусь(сія) by Wolodimyr Kuchinsky
Readings and Productions Insulted. Belarus was written at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic when the vast majority of theaters around the world were closed. As such, directors and actors who had grown accustomed to meeting, rehearsing and even performing on the Zoom video communication app were ready and able quickly to mount readings online. Zoom was the most popular medium for making readings available, but some groups also posted their work on Facebook Live, YouTube, or on their own organizational websites. The various technologies and social media employed by theaters and groups of actors allowed creative teams properly to observe social distancing, for in most cases, the actors and directors worked from home before their computer monitors. Furthermore, “The reality of COVID-19 combined with the possibilities of the available technologies not only encouraged artists to work, they began to influence the work itself, the way it was made, and the form it assumed in the end.” In time, the readings became increasingly cinematic, beginning with the award-winning Russian film by Oksana Mysina, later including complex and stylized staged readings by Gabrielle Tuminaite at the Vilnius State Small Theatre of Lithuania; Javor Gardev at the Ivan Radoev Drama and Puppet Theater, Pleven, Bulgaria; and Jerzy Jan Połoński at Teatr Miejski in Gliwice, Poland.
The first reading in any language took place on 12 September 2020, in the original Russian, at the Kulish Academic Musical and Drama Theater in Kherson, Ukraine. It was directed by Sergei Pavlyuk. The same company mounted the world premiere of a full production onstage before a live audience on 1 October 2020. The first reading in the United States, directed by Igor Golyak in Russian, was mounted by Arlekin Players in Boston. The world premiere of the English text was performed in a Zoom reading by Rogue Machine Theater in Los Angeles on 18 September under the direction of Guillermo Cienfuegos. The premiere in the United Kingdom took place on 19 September, a reading directed by Bryan Brown for ARTEL and Maketank, in Exeter, England. The first full production in the U.S. was mounted by Frédérique Michel at City Garage in Santa Monica, CA, November 17-December 17, 2023. Critic Steven Stanley wrote this about it: "As highly political as it is deeply personal, Insulted. Belarus is contemporary theater at its most informative and impactful."Stanley, Steven, "Insulted. Belarus. Wow!" 19 November 2023: https://stagescenela.com/2023/11/insulted-belarus/ This production was named Distinguished Production of a New International Play for 2023 in the annual Stage Raw theater awards for the Los Angeles area.Morris, Steven Leigh, "2024 Stage Raw Theater Award Recipients" (7 March 2024) Stage Raw. https://stageraw.com/2024-stage-raw-theater-awards-recipients/ Retrieved 14 March 2024.
European theaters began joining the project in large numbers approximately one month after the play first appeared. Venues in the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Poland, Lithuania and Sweden mounted numerous readings in October, while in November the play was picked up by theater groups in Scotland, the Netherlands, Hong Kong (in English, Cantonese and Mandarin), Nigeria, Moldova, Romania, Holland, Belgium and other locations. The most massive single project within the project was organized by Raluca Rădulescu, a Romanian radio personality and translator, who organized 16 readings in 16 days at 16 venues in Romania and Moldova in February 2021.
Readings covered a vast range in terms of size and impact. There were small events at schools or colleges such as the readings at Strange Town Theatre Company in Edinburgh, Scotland, and St. Olaf College in Northfield, MN. The reading at the Birkbeck Centre for Contemporary Theatre in London, England, was essentially a private gathering organized by a group of politically active scholars and performers. However, established local or large national venues around the world made up the greater part of the project’s participants. The Jerzy Grotowski Institute in Wroclaw was one of the first groups in Poland to mount a reading. Rogue Machine Theater in Los Angeles cast the Hollywood actor Joe Spano in the role of Oldster. The National Theater in The Hague and virtually every major theater in Romania produced work.