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| Photo by Dmitrij Matvejev |
Perhaps the first leading role of Gytis Ivanauskas on Lithuanian stage is not exactly the Raskolnikov that you have pictured to yourselves, but the acrobatics of his ailing soul involves into his orbit not only the entire crowd of miserable faces played by great actors of the Kaunas Drama Theatre as well as guest actors but also the attention and thoughts of the audience settled on the stage.
Various viewing perspectives are combined in a very creative way – the audience seated on the stage is allowed to see and listen to the performance at very close range. The characters become even more familiar to the spectators due to their close-ups in video projections. The action in some episodes is distanced from the eyes of the audience and only small, pale silhouettes of people can be seen on the huge white screen.
By Šarūnė Trinkūnaitė. Director’s Moves Have Not overshadowed Actors (Lith. Režisieriaus ėjimai nenustelbė aktorių). Lietuvos rytas/Mūzų malūnas, 04-05-2004
In the majority of his performances at the Kaunas Drama Theatre, Gintaras Varnas has sought to identify the boundary that distinguishes special people marked with a different kind of knowledge from ordinary mortals. And although all the performances seem to be very distinct from one another, all their characters are touched with the sensation of inner boundary that separates them from others, turns them into exiles and forces them to choose: either to change or retreat. (…) The crime of Raskolnikov is the expression of his otherness and an attempt to justify him; however, the director is more interested in the life of the character after the crime – a growing distance between him and the others, an increasingly strong process of his inner split.
By Rasa Vasinauskaitė. Several Steps of Transgression (Lith. Keli transgresijos žingsniai). 7 meno dienos, 14-05-2004
The principle of montage of the scenes of the performance as well as dramaturgy of music seem to be cinematic (the sound, film stylistics – composer Giedrius Puskunigis has combined smartly Orthodox singing with fairly conventional passages marking the structure of film action: introductions, development, dramatic climaxes, emphases). Furthermore, a video camera exists physically on the stage. It serves as a magnifying glass of a interrogator, as a microscope of self-analysis and self-reproach, and as a telescope of “Napoleon-like” visions. Also, such details as a portable water pump that creates the illusion of rain are woven into the texture of the performance. On his way to death, Svidrigailov is watered with the pump by a house caretaker.
By Vlada Kalpokaitė. Backscreens and Maps of Surrounding Islands (Lith. Užekranės ir aplinkinių salų žemėlapis). Teatras, Winter 2004
