New York Critic

photo: Arlekin Players Theatre Online readings are our theater's response to the covid crisis. Arlekin Players Theatre and Cherry Orchard Festival do a very fine job of it in their reading - presented on Zoom - of Insulted. Belarus(sia) , a new play by Andrei Kureichik that examines the current political events in Belarus - the demonstrations and arrests following the bogus re-election of Aleksandr Lukashenko. The playwright, Andrei Kureichik, sits on the coordinating council of the protest movement. The reading was screened twice - once in Russian and once in English. I opted for the English translation. The cast of characters is comprised of actual people and fictitious people. We find Aleksandr Lukashenko and his young son, as well as Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, his losing opponent in the election and - this is well documented - the favorite of the people. In addition, there are fictitious - but no less true - characters on either side of the political divide: two election monitor...