E. Jelinek’s “Political Theater” is directed against the industry of amusement, entertainment and distraction from pressing problems that has filled the world, against the replacement of reality, often very unsightly, with virtual reality, smoothed and sweetened. The writer cultivates the art of shocking, protest, rebellion, “the art of searching and questioning,” a kind of avant-garde shock therapy. In this capacity, she again and again encounters sharp opposition, reaching the point of vilification and insults, not only from the public, but also from critics. So sharp and frank that in the late 1990s she spoke about fatigue and even hopelessness in the fight against evil. But there was a daring murder of four gypsies who were trying to remove a board with the inscription “Gypsies, go to your India”: an improvised explosive device went off. This event shook Jelinek to the core, and she again decided to stir up public opinion, which had rather calmly greeted the news of this crime, with a new political play, permeated with anger and rage. Elfriede Jelinek’s plays are not easy to understand, often deliberately complicated, stuffed with hidden and explicit quotes and require not only a certain intellectual effort, but also appropriate preparation. This means they need some clarification. The play is accompanied by an afterword by the translator - V. Sedelnik.