Playing the Victim

Playing the Victim (Изображая жертву in the original Russian) is a satirical comedy written by the Presnyakov Brothers (Oleg Presnyakov and Vladimir Presnyakov)[1].

The original text

Set in a city somewhere in central Russia, the play is a darkly absurd play about a young man who drops out of university and goes to the police to get a job, playing the victim in murder reconstructions. The action alternates scenes between the young man and his bored and boring parents, with scenes showing the re-enactment by the police of various real-life crimes.

Translations and adaptations

Translated into English as Playing the Victim by Sasha Dugdale. Performed by the Told by an Idiot theatre company at the Royal Court Theatre and published in the NHB Modern Plays Series by Nick Hern Books in 2003.

Filmed in Russian as Изображая жертву[2] in 2006.

In 2008 Saartjie Botha translated it into Afrikaans as Om Soos 'n Lyk Te Lê ("To recline like a corpse").