This season must be spent in the Vilnius Old Theater (VST), not in...hell, as the decadent French poet Arthur Rimbaud "suggested" in the book "Season in Hell". Although the theater is not a building, but people, ideas that struggle and generate life, we suggest you just go to the oldest theater in Vilnius, open yourself to new experiences. Especially since the theater building itself is like a whole big scenography. This year is already the 111th year of VST, and the season is bold, vigorous, multilingual.
Five premieres
In February, the audience will be invited to Kotryna Siaurusaitytė's performance "I was at home and I was waiting for the rain to come" (according to Jean-Luc Lagarce). At the end of February, the director, marked by the sign of rebellion and imbued with grotesque, will be released to the arena. Jakūb Brazis's performance "Caligula" (based on Albert Camus), and spring will float director. "Martyr" by Agniaus Jankevičius (after Marius von Mayenburg). May dir. Jonas Vaitkus takes on a Jewish theme - he will talk about Sholom Zelmanavičius' play "Ger tzedekas. Count Potocki from Vilnius". For the first time, even the smallest children - babies - will be treated to a VST performance. In April, the director and choreographer Birutė Banevičiūtė will "grow" the interactive performance "The World Tree" in Mažoja hall. The five premieres of this season should not disappoint not only the loyal theater audience, but also attract the audience that has been bypassing VST until now. Theater is a process, an event, a performance - the premiere will be accompanied by discussions from the cycle "Mažoji scena", exhibitions.
Caligula, Rebellion, Ode to Anxiety
It is an old truth that every generation has to reinterpret Shakespeare's texts, and according to the director of the younger generation "Caligula" by Jokūb Brazis, Albert Camus (premiere - February 28, 29 in Lithuanian with Russian subtitles) need to be "read" again at least once a decade. With its dramatic action, the hero's ambitious cold-bloodedness, this play still shocks us today, makes us think about the relationship between the government and the individual, and draws attention to today's context. The play remains relevant, dealing with people's experiences and relationships with authority and moral dilemmas in the modern world.
J. Brazys has said: "I am drawn to explore the depths of existential fear, hopelessness and madness. The hell Caligula creates is a resistance to inevitability. How do you maintain a balance between a crumbling world and a helpless person? I analyze the nature of existential fear. Caligula is an ode to anxiety.”
This play was staged in Lithuanian theaters by a whole host of directors: Jonas Vaitkus, Ignas Jonynas, Agnius Jankevičius, Vidas Bareikis, Eimuntas Nekrošius... J. Brazys, whose "Caligula" gravitates towards phantasmagoria, grotesque, is now among the "caligulists".
Beware - Marius von Mayenburg, religious extremism!
Agniaus Jankevičius' play "The Martyr" by German playwright Marius von Mayenburg (premiere - April 12, 13 in Russian with Lithuanian subtitles) at the epicenter is Benjamin, a teenager raised by a single mother, who turns the "truth" found in the Bible into a tool to torture, manipulate and terrorize those around him. The boy uses the most radical passages of scripture in his "war", which he uses to oppose the adult world, the society that does not suit him. The problematic field of the play is wide and relevant - the battle of ideas, the role of extremism and religion in society is examined, the contradictions of Western society, division, the threat of fanaticism and how it correlates with religion are revealed. The play reveals the total disorder of adults and society in the face of Christian radicalism.
Both J. Brazys and A. Jankevičius tackle uncomfortable, socially active topics, focusing on today's society, a person on the margins, on the outskirts. Caligula rebels, he wants to baptize the world with fire and thus cleanse it, but he becomes a murderer, meanwhile, in the "Martyr", Benjamin, a student, wants to change the world, "sits" on the needle of religious fanaticism... The heroes basically start spinning in their circles of hell.
And again those French
The idea that the French talk too much, play with the language and its possibilities has been broadcast more than once from the lips of Lithuanian directors, like a reproach. That's what the French are for! The language is also very important for directors In Jean-Luc Lagarce's play "I was at home waiting for the rain to come" staged by Kotryna Siaurusaitytė (premiere - February 17, 18 in Russian with Lithuanian subtitles). The extremely rich, "saturated" and poetic text of the play is one of the main building materials. It is a play about five women who have been waiting for what for many years: a brother, a son, a grandson, who was kicked out of the house by his father after a quarrel. Women's lives seem to have stopped, stuck in time. Waiting becomes a separate character in the performance, like the shadow of the becketic Godot or the approaching planet from Lars von Trier's "Melancholia". Five bright female characters, poetic language, metaphor binds, binds. According to the director, the performance radiates a considerable emotional load, is open, close to the viewer and very fragile. Through the theme of memory, a painful family drama is revealed - the inability to communicate.
"Caligula" by J. Brazi, "I was at home and waiting for the rain to come" by K. Siaurusaitytė, the premiere of director Monika Klimaitė's "The Reunification of Two Koreas" based on Joël Pommerat's play, which took place in the fall of 2023, is the premiere of the theater in VST in June 2023 the result of the laboratory "Mes - Françaiseʼ23" (only sketches of performances were shown in it).
Theater is also for babies
Babies and toddlers don't need art or theater - they don't understand anything anyway? The question will be rhetorical. Choreographer and director Birutė Banevičiūtė will present the play "World Tree" for 6-18-month-old babies (premiere - April 26, 27). This is a sensory-friendly movement performance for toddlers, which will give them the freedom to explore movements and stage objects together with the actors. Changing their color and shape, the actors' costumes and set pieces will invite babies to move and experience the joy of discovery. For adults, this is an opportunity to see their little ones in a new, artistic environment that inspires children's imagination and develops creativity. B. Banevičiūtė constructs the dramaturgy based on the joint action of actors and children-spectators, and the idea of the performance is based on the image of a mythological world tree, the roots of which represent the past and the underworld, the trunk the present and the earthly world, and the branches the future and the sky.
This kind of theater is innovative, relatively new, the performance is wordless, so emotion and movement become a universal language here.
Who is Sholom Zelmanavičius? What else is Ger tzedek?
Director Jonas Vaitkus, celebrating his 80th birthday, dives into the Jewish world - he will close the VST season with Šolom Zelmanavičius's play "Ger tzedekas" staged for the first time in Lithuania. Count Potocki from Vilnius" (the premiere is in May).
Sh. Zelmanavičius (1898-1944) is an undeservedly forgotten artist of the interwar period, an active figure in the Jewish community of Kaunas, who was widely known not only as a theater artist, but also as a playwright. The dramatic legend "Ger cedek. Vilner graf Potocki" ("Good tzedek. Count Potocki from Vilnius") was published in 1934. Yiddish language. Born in Vilnius, in a Jewish family, spent a lot of time in the old Jewish cemetery in Šnipiškės as a child, worked in a private Jewish theater in Vilnius, after the loss of his parents Š. Zelmanavičius moved to Kaunas permanently. There he got a job as a decorator's assistant at the State Theater and developed his multifaceted activities: he painted decorations, created them himself and costumes for Kaunas Hebrew Theater performances. He expressed himself also as a painter - he organized exhibitions of his work, illustrated books... Boring factology? Maybe, but admit it - many of you are hearing about this artist for the first time.
And have you heard about Count Potockis of Vilnius "Ger tzedek"? For the play Sh. Zelmanavičius adapted an old Jewish legend about a rich Christian young man who converted to Judaism. Because of his faith, the legend of the young man who was burned in Vilnius became an integral part of Jewish folklore not only in Vilnius, but also in the whole of Eastern Europe. In this performance you will hear all "Vilna" languages: Lithuanian, Yiddish, Hebrew, Russian, Polish.
And Ger tzedek? This is simply a righteous proselyte - a person who has accepted another faith.
The exhibitions include life sentences, Š. Zelmanavičius painting, graphics
As usual at VST, the premier will be accompanied by exhibitions and discussions from the "Mažoji scena" cycle. It's already a tradition. The next discussion is on February 22. - "Caligula" in the Lithuanian theater and the man from the border".
Exhibitions and discussions on topics relevant to society in a certain sense expand the performance and its problematic field. The premier of "Caligula" and "Kankin" will be welcomed by Gediminas Sadauskas' photo exhibition "Lukiškių skr. No. 6", which contains life sentences and prison shots, which were domesticated in 2013-2019. The exhibition, like the "heroes" of the performances (Caligula, student Benjamin Ziūdel), for one reason or another are on the outskirts, people on the margins, outsiders, misfits, executioners.
The performance "Ger Tzedek. Count Potocki from Vilnius" will be accompanied by Š. Zelmanavičius art exhibition. Halina Kairiūkštytė Jacynienė wrote: "Strange, irrational and fantastic creation that distorts reality. (…) Thus, in the artist's paintings, "there is no need to look for justice." It creates its own "dweller" and creates a corresponding household for it. Many of his paintings cannot be understood by anyone - without the author's explanation, they often lose their meaning."
Vilnius old theater encourages everyone to rediscover this theater, it is worth it.
