Celebrating Theatre’s birthday with four premiers!
December is a special time for the Kaunas National Drama Theatre – on 19 December it will be the theatre’s 98th birthday. To celebrate, four new plays will premiere on the stage: Creatures (director Eglė Kižaitė), The Wind in the Willows by Algirdas Landsbergis (director G. Padegimas), Celebration, based on short stories by Juozas Grušas (director Agnius Jankevičius), and Trojan Women (director Povilas Makauskas).
On 18 January, 2019, with the festive mood still lingering, spectators will be presented with the fourth premier – Trojan Women (director Povilas Makauskas).
CREATURES
Based on The Big Book of Creatures by Kotryna Zylė
Director – Eglė Kižaitė
Set and costume designer – Justė Kondratė
Playwright – Monika Baranauskaitė
Music composed by – Arūnas W Blažys and Pijus Narijauskas
Actors: Dominyka Budinavičiūtė, Karolina Elžbieta Mikolajūnaitė, Inga Mikutavičiūtė, Tomas Erbrėderis, Dominykas Vaitiekūnas, Rokas Lažaunykas.
Have you ever thought while taking a bite of a pickle that it is the work of the god of pickling Rūgutis? Do you know that your beloved lake you like to swim in summertime has been carved out with a sharp axe by the god of thunder Perkūnas? How about goddess of fire Gabija, sitting cosily beside a gas stove and protecting us from fire burning our home?
The four winds with groomed moustaches – Rytys, Vakaris, Vasaris and Žiemys – will introduce you to the old Lithuanian mythological creatures. At first, the world of these creatures may seem scary. However, only until one finds out abou it.
Opening: December 1, 2, and 8, 2018.
Musical play for children from 5 years old.
The Small Stage
The play is produced together with Vėjų Teatras troup
Algirdas Landsbergis
THE WIND IN THE WILLOWS
Director – Gytis Padegimas
Set and costume designer – Birutė Ukrinaitė
Composer – Raimundas Martinkėnas
Choreographer – Indrė Puišytė
Actors: Dainius Svobonas, Arnas Ašmonas, Jurgis Jarašius, Andrius Gaučas, Karolina Elžbieta Mikolajūnaitė, Dovydas Pabarčius, Ugnė Žirgulė, Henrikas Savickis, Artūras Sužiedėlis, Milė Šablauskaitė.
Director Gytis Padegimas comes back to the Kaunas National Drama Theatre after a few years break with the emigrant writer Algirdas Landsbergis’s play The Wind in the Willows. [A.] The writer discusses the inward conflict – how one is to live facing historical tragedies. Clear poetical intonation which is characteristic to Lithuanian historical dramas is apparent in the dialogues of the play, and the plot takes back to the XVI century, the moment Lithuanian-Polish forces wait to battle the Russian army for Livonia. Saint Casimir together with an angel comes down to earth for a brief moment to see people and their earthly lives, however the visit takes longer than expected…
“Similar to other plays as Our Town and During the Long Christmas Eve, this play is strongly Wilderesque, as its theme revolves around ordinary people, their strangely connected fates in the face of war. Since nowadays we feel strong geopolitical tension, I believe this play is very important. Also, Algirdas Landsbergis’ texts are like remedy for strengthening the Lithuanian consciousness” says the director of the play with confidence.
Director Gytis Padegimas
Opening: December 7, 9, and 23, 2018.
Two-act play
The Long Hall
The play is sponsored by the The Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Lithuania
Based on Juozas Grušas short stories
CELEBRATION
Director – Agnius Jankevičius
Actors: Jūratė Onaitytė, Gabrielė Ladygaitė, Gintautas Bejeris, Pijus Narijauskas.
Inspired by Juozas Grušas lesser known paradoxical short stories director Agnius Jankevičius with the play Celebration presents his own provocative version of them. The play depicts one small city people’s lives, marked with little guilts, sometimes having fire of inquisitionin which the guilty of our own mistakes we want to hide burn.
Director Agnius Jankevičius
Opening: December 19, 20, and 22, 2018.
Rūta’s Hall
The play is sponsored by the The Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Lithuania
Based on tragedies by Euripides.
THE TROJAN WOMEN
Director and author of the staging – Povilas Makauskas
Set design authors – Povilas Makauskas and Dominyka Kačonaitė
Costume designer – Dominyka Kačonaitė
Composer – Gabija Gaigalaitė
Actors: Saulius Čiučelis, Martyna Gedvilaitė, Eglė Grigaliūnaitė, Vilija Grigaitytė, Gytis Laskovas, Fausta Semionovaitė, Vaidas Maršalka.
Dramaturgy of the play is build upon the connection between the causes and consequences of Trojan War, based on Euripides’ tragedies Iphigenia in Tauris and Tojan Women. Also used in the play are the fragments of Margaret Atwood’s Penelopiad, The Unwomanly Face of War by Svetlana Alexievich, and other documentary material. Actors contribute to the dramaturgy of the play as well.
“I belong to the generation which came after the restoration of independence, therefore I feel the need to contemplate the ideas of pacifism and peace. Rising nationalism and radicalism in today’s Europe makes one interpret the eternal ancient Greece texts as a worrisome warning. The main theme of play is the victim of war. I want to depict it through a collage of human tragedy, which analyses a wide variety of war topics: the absurdity of war, the sacrifice of a woman, violence against women, cruelty, the consequences of nationalism, the crisis of patriarchy, and the losses and traumas of war” says the director.
Director Povilas Makauskas
Opening: January 18, 19, and 25, 2019.
Rūta’s Hall
