The 2022-2023 theatre season in Lithuania is hard to put together. Apart from the fact that the most memorable events were produced by younger creators, recollection of the whole does not necessarily reveal any particular patterns or regularities. What stood out more was the uniqueness of individual works that shone through in different theatres, and that is why I looked at the premieres from that perspective.
Without hesitation, I can say that the highlight of the season for me was Laukys [Common Coot] presented at the Panevėžys Juozas Miltinis Drama Theatre (JMDT) at the very beginning of the season. The work of Olga Lapina, Renata Valčik, Mindaugas Nastaravičius, Tamoo Nagai, Agnietė Lisičkinaitė, Dinas Marcinkevičius and the cast of actors was first and foremost captivating in its professionalism and sensitive approach towards the chosen theme. Starting from the theme of lonely, unknown graves and the search for the loved ones, the creators have crafted a journey that is universal for each one of us. The black and white colouring of the performance, minimalist set that fills up the entire stage and the endless soundtrack immerse the audience in a meditative journey lasting for an hour.
The black coloured water bird, heard of by few, becomes a prototype of forgotten, unknown or solitary people, flying to its own mountain peaks in the body of Albinas Kėleris in the finale of the performance. The visual, musical and directorial materials are imbued with Eastern philosophy, organically intertwining the bleakness of Lithuanian everyday life with the depth of Eastern thought, which allows us to see the light in the darkness, the mountain peaks in the holes in the ground etc. Life and death, as Yin-Yang concept, are combined both in the colour palette of the performance and in the common coot itself. Perhaps due to such strong thematic attraction along the visual part and its complementary choreographic solutions, the spoken word and the written dramaturgy seem to be the weakest link in the performance. The desire (or tendency) to create a common narrative was not evaded and the texts sometimes oversimplify the message being transmitted. However, this cannot be called poor dramaturgy, but rather an incomplete mastery of an expression that differs from the usual one, for which a more precise key should be sought, both in the direction and in the creation of the texts.
Nevertheless, unexpectedly early in the season, Laukys became the experience of the year, which brought back the sense of professionalism and respect for teamwork, at the same time proving that you don't have to work in the biggest or exclusive theatre in the capital to achieve the best result. One shall greet JMDT's artistic director Aleksandras Špilevojus, for inviting such a team and for the progress made during the last season, providing the actors of the company with an opportunity to create diverse theatre forms.
At the same time, Špilevojus's own stage works do not stand out in this context, but I would like to mention his work that delights the audience of the State Šiauliai Drama Theatre. Pakeliui [On the Road] is a performance - a bus and time travel around Šiauliai that is in high demand by the audience. It is easy to understand why: the clear and simple content telling the story of a person's life, the bus stops representing different years and stages of life, and the whole journey ending with the typical Lithuanian forest motif. It is a pity that the acting of most actors does not “hit the mark”, remaining too theatrical, trying to distance from the reality created around them and the audience close to them. Perhaps the director provides few tools for this, as does the rather declarative and didactic dramaturgy.
However, I took away two great impressions from this trip: the wonderful work of lighting designer Vilijus Vilutis, comparable to the work on the film set, and, I would say, the gift of fate for the performance - the Ukrainian actress Olena Lastivka. Towards the finale of Pakeliui she reads a letter, reflecting and reacting to the main character's troubles through the eyes of the present war experience, revealing (either consciously or unknowingly) the shallowness of the story developed in the piece.
Sadly, I did not have a chance to see another premiere at this theatre - Found found found directed by Naubertas Jasinskas. This highly noticeable and prolific director of the younger generation has returned to his hometown theatre inspired by Jonas Mekas. I recently found out that Jasinskas's grandfather, marked in the history of the theatre as a highly creative actor, used to work at State Šiauliai Drama Theatre, so it is easy to start thinking about the codes contained in the genes. Speaking of family, it is impossible not to mention Jasinskas's work Pelican shown at OKT, which, in my opinion, has received too little attention. Although it officially belongs to an earlier season, this rarely performed work, just like Eglė Kižaitė's Pirk dramblį [Buy an Elephant], is one of the best examples of the younger generation's work with dramaturgy. Pelican dives into themes that are still difficult to grasp in Lithuanian theatre: the family drama of August Strindberg's work is rethought in the context of a gender transition, which is accepted as the death of a loved one.
The themes of gender fluidity and sexual orientation are also prominent in this season's Jasinskas's work The End of Eddy at the State Youth Theatre. The characters and their (un)decided identities float in a tiny space filled with shades of pink. Similar to another premiere of the Youth Theatre season, Gouache (directed by Adomas Juška), this play features a number of young actors from the theatre company. Some of them have already been seen several times and really catch the eye with their versatility, showing the truly young face of this theatre.
The collective led by Audronis Liuga devotes significant time and resources to works of enormous scale and weight, “protected” by famous names, but for the time being, they are all inferior to Krystian Lupa's Austerlitz, and they continue living in their own bubble. At the same time, it is the works of the younger generation of directors that are attracting more attention, namely Memoirs of a Young Man by Eglė Švedkauskaitė, and the aforementioned premieres by Jasinskas and Juška. By the way, regardless of how naive the idea of “theatre without literature” seemed in the press releases of Gouache, the first half of the performance was really interesting. Having abandoned the pre-written work, it was possible to observe the development of the young director's thought on stage, the logical (and not necessarily logical) connections, and finally the worldview not hidden by borrowed texts.
Of course, it was also obvious that the performance, having abandoned the text, is still constructed using verbal rather than visual logic of storytelling: at first a narrative is conceived, which is then sought to be told without using text. Eventually, this principle becomes tiresome, the performance is unnecessarily prolonged, as if the creator does not want to give up the scenes that he likes, although they are not necessary for the dramaturgy or the field of meaning. Ironically, therefore, by abandoning the play, the director was lacking a dramatist. Nevertheless, the attempt itself, as a rare choice on our stage, was worth watching.
It was in Gouache that my attention was first caught by the young generation actress Augustė Šimulynaitė, repeating the impression she made in Oliver Frljić's Metamorphosis at the Lithuanian National Drama Theatre (LNDT). In my recent review of this production, I shared my thoughts on the actress's powerful presence on stage and the precise conveyance of text meaning. Speaking of the LNDT season, the horses of Jokūbas Brazys, the rhinoceros of Antanas Obcarskas and the entire livestock farm of Paulius Tamolė are nevertheless overcome by the all-surviving cockroaches. Inspired by Franz Kafka's The Metamorphosis, Frljić moves further and, having accepted his hatred of humans, admits that he is one of them, whereas his desire to be accepted (so it begins to seem) finds powerful resonances in the tragic nature of the world today.
I said that the season has no single denominator, but now it seems that the theatre makers have been inspired by a lot of animals. Goda Simonaitytė directed the play for teenagers, ironically titling it Animals. Although many questions and remarks could be made about both the play and the performance itself, one thing works precisely and authentically in the play: the view on and the address towards the target audience. In Animals there is a clear sense of tantamount communication with the audience. While targeting the upper grades, it seems that the school drama would have a better impact on pupils in grades 7-10. In other words, it might be better to talk about what is yet to come in teenagers' lives, thus avoiding inaccurate assumptions. In any case, the premiere, which I attended unexpectedly, was a pleasant surprise in terms of its approach towards the audience, which has not been explored much in Lithuanian theatre so far. It is also encouraging that the number of works for teenagers is increasing, as is the number of those who produce such works consistently and not randomly. For example, Augustas Gornatkevičius, who attracted attention with his play Emilių Emilis [The One and Only Emil] (for children aged 8-12), presented Taisykla [Schooler] for audiences aged 14 and up at the National Kaunas Drama Theatre (NKDT) this season. Next season he will take on Siberian Haiku (for the 8-12 age group) at LNDT.
Continuing with the nature theme, the premiere of Cacti at the Klaipėda State Music Theatre's must be mentioned. The work by the cult choreographer Alexander Ekman, which has become an international legend, has been revived in the port city. Proving that it can still be relevant, the dance performance also brought a lot of benefits to the dancers' company as they were able to demonstrate their best qualities: rhythm, synchronicity and power of their bodies that might also be coming from Ukrainian folk dance basics (Ukrainian dancers make up the major part of the company). Painful everyday life of Ukrainians at war was developed by the project Insomnia by the artists' group “Žuvies akis” in Klaipėda. Its idea, implementation and the result itself, make this work one of the most beautiful examples of wartime cooperation for me. The joint work of Lithuanian and Ukrainian artists was created in Lviv bombarded by rockets, in the safe haven of Paris, and in Lithuania, always awake either because of the news or due to occasional uncertainty. This is also the case in the performance, where the sides experiencing the war and waiting for news from the war zone experience different sleeplessness and never really meet.
Briefly remembering the dance creators this season, my attention was caught by the project Love Chrestomathy, which was shown at the MO Museum during the “New Baltic Dance Festival”. The dance and film installation, created by choreographer Erika Vizbaraitė, film director Elena Kairytė and set designer Vladas Suncovas, (re)explores and simultaneously creates love and the feeling of love. To put it more precisely - the memory of that feeling, which we carry with us and constantly re-create. This work will be shown and presented in a different way, so I suggest you keep an eye on the project and follow it.
Other forms of expression, combined with music and cinema art, have been attempted by the State Small Theatre of Vilnius. Infinity and Scylla Wants to Be Human, directed by Gabrielė Tuminaitė, were both intended to comment on current social issues in their own way. In Scylla, the perfectly realised first cinematic part left no questions and anticipated the answers of the second part. So, while the decision to repeat the story a second time is understandable and logical, it offers no new content. Whereas in Infinity, the director has failed to control the stated performance form. The attempt of the Belarusians to resist the authorities and the denim jazz revolution led by Dalius Naujokaitis suffer a fate similar to that of Scylla - the eloquence of one form overshadows another and the content is lacking. Not a narrative - situations abound in both, but their purposeful thought is lacking; in Infinity, however, the form leans towards the side of spectacle, raising yet other demands.
And finally, Robert Wilson's Dorian at the NKDT. Unlike many viewers, I didn't faint after this performance. Frankly speaking, I thought that that the creator who has his individual worldview and his style have finally turned into his own “cliché”. While in opera the inner emptiness of such repetitions is filled by meanings provided by the music, Dorian's texts only deepened the impression of emptiness. What needs to be understood is that I see this performance in the context of Wilson's own work, not in the context of the venue. However, Dorian lays bare its makers, unashamedly revealing how close to the portrait is its explorer. It is also strange to watch one of the best actors of the NKDT - Dainius Svobonas - seemingly completely out of place on his stage or form. At the same time, Mantas Zemleckas triumphs in successfully separating the body and the text, in the manner of Wilson's theatre, in order to reunite them in an order that only obeys the logic of the play. Nevertheless, watching the two actors, one is left with the feeling that the real Dorian triumphs in one person.
Recommendation for the summer for those who haven't listened to the radio series (only in Lithuanian) Šiaurės miestelis.
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