Word: brotherism
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Pretty much everywhere is a long way from the Presnyakov brothers' hometown of Yekaterinburg deep in the Ural Mountains. But that's O.K. "A life on the go adds grist to our impression mill," says Oleg Presnyakov, 37, as he and his brother, Vladimir, 32, packed for a trip to Berlin to attend an opening of their 2003 play, Playing the Victim. It's a good thing the duo don't mind life on the road. Their increasing popularity as two of the world's hottest young playwrights has made itineraries like Moscow to Sydney via Tokyo, or Boston...
...twosome have a symbiotic relationship would be an understatement. Oleg, the elder, is also the bigger and more garrulous of the pair. Kid brother Vladimir, meanwhile, is slighter and more taciturn, but quick with a smile and a mischievous joke - or an existential musing about the nature of their brotherhood. "We have often wondered if just one of us exists, while the other is just a figment of his imagination," says Vladimir. "Except," adds Oleg, "we never got to sort out which of us is which." That exchange is indicative of how the brothers work on their original and absurd...
Playing the Victim, the brothers' more recent work, is similarly disturbing. It revolves around Valentin, a student who gets a job playing the victim in police crime-scene reconstructions. Even though they are simulated, his repeated participation in one gruesome end after another highlights the violence and brutality endemic in contemporary life. Meanwhile, in a parallel plot that parodies Shakespeare, the ghost of Valentin's father tells him that he was poisoned by his brother who later married Valentin's mother. While the finale is inevitable - Valentin takes his mother, his uncle and his girlfriend (who has become...
...well as his father (who is also defense minister) Prince Sultan, and others in the so-called Sudeiri branch of the royal family have long favored cautious, but somewhat more aggressive methods to deal with Iran than has the al-Faisal branch, represented by Prince Turki and his brother, the foreign minister, Prince Saud al-Faisal. However, another well-placed Saudi source disputes this notion, claiming that the Prince would never have resigned over any such differing views - and that in any case there is no such clear factional split over Iran policy...
...still trying to act as Saudi Arabia's point man in dealing directly with President Bush and Vice President Cheney. More general reports of bad blood between the two Saudi princes have also fed rumors that Bandar, also the King's nephew, is positioning himself to replace Turki's brother Faisal as foreign minister. Turki has also been rumored as likely to succeed his brother, but some Saudi watchers say that, at least for now, the King and other decision makers are undecided...