What is rightful authority? Such an audacious question is posed by the superbly balanced humor of Insulted. Belarus at City Garage Theatre in what is a consistently portrayed disappointed of voter’s rights not being honored. Yet is the will of the majority always healthy?

The play, written by Andre Kureichik (with translation by John Friedman and directed by Frédérique Michel and produced by Charles Duncombe), uncloaks the curtained Father figure, abstractly distant in his hearth from the real wants and needs of the people; or so they desire to be believe to be absolutely unconditionally and irreversibly progressive. President Alexander Lukishanko – affectionately titled Oldster by the playwright and played phenomenally well by Randall Wulff – reminds them of the actual conditions of the people’s vote: It is a waste of time.

From Left to right: ‘Corpse, a Protestor’ (Anthony M Sannazzaro) and ‘Raptor, a storm-trooper’ (Andrew Lovishka). Photography courtesy of Frederique Michel and City Garage Theatre.

But is it a waste of will power? To legitimately assemble to demand what is consistent with the public countenance of justice where democratic representation is involved is in perfect agreement with the right to vote. To demand one’s political rights absolutely, however, is exactly where the art of politics begins. And that is to introduce necessary harmony where distortion is certain from origin.

So why give the kids who are brainwashed by Western Media the vote? It is eye-opening to consider the self-representation of Lukashenko as a warm father figure who has the potential to chastise, while giving Belarusians the chance to believe they have hope.

Hope in living a better life than their ancestors! What a possible idea that is palpable, now that the tide of Soviet dictatorship is ebbing; and the chance to extend outward with the possibility of a few club sticks and date-rapes is the punishment compared to the brutally frightening disappearance of love from secret police abductions.

That the divine stage needs to be cast with such a gentle overlook of actual physical atrocities gives us a, albeit glib, demonstration of human civil progress.

Between a man who is piloting the ship as best as he can, and the youth who are looking to march on from the entrenchment of past errors in judgment of what is the best for the future.

(From foreground to background) ‘Youth, the son’ (Courtney Brechemin) and ‘Oldster, The Moustache Man’ (Randall Wulff). Photography courtesy of Frederique Michel and City Garage Theatre.

Insutled. Belarus brings forth an amazing truth that is only possible with the right-mindedness of the playwright in painting President Lukashenko as this earnestly fatherly in his self-rationalizations. The important significance of including the son – played by Courtney Brechemin – and the ostensibly petulant and mediocre concerns of video games being interrupted by foreign espionage – and the directorial choice of informing the audience of a son which is adolescent and boyish versus his current age – ought to provide the audience perspective of the limitations of world leaders in the fates of our future lives. That it is a healthy reminder there is the sincere anxiety of what to wear and what to eat and how to best raise one’s child that is universal to all families – Belarusian dictator’s inclusive. It is to these ends which, while in ignorance, we seek to avoid disagreement. And what is certainly, agreeable, therefore, is to live in a world where brutality is nonexistent.

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