The White Plague 2035
In a gripping blend of biting satire and haunting prophecy, The White Plague catapults us into the near future—where the ghosts of totalitarianism return, cloaked in new ideologies and armed with digital disinformation. In this bold reimagining of Karel Čapek’s visionary work, acclaimed playwright Andrei Kureichik (Insulted Belarus, The Empty Shell of War) delivers a darkly comic and chilling vision of 21st-century Europe on the brink. Putin is gone, discarded as weak. In his place rises Marshal Tretyak, a brutal autocrat resurrecting imperial dreams of a Eurasian Empire. As war looms and propaganda reigns, a mysterious pandemic sweeps the globe—targeting the elderly in a ruthless culling known as the White Plague. Only one person holds the key to a cure: Dr. Gallen, a defector from the liberal West. Kureichik’s White Plague is a razor-sharp tragicomedy that dissects modern authoritarianism, generational rifts, and the collapse of global solidarity. In a world plagued by isolationism, disinformation, and resurgent imperialism, can humanism survive? A bold, timely, and unforgettable theatrical reading.
