Director Justinas Vinciūnas: I seek connection through my work

The name of Justinas Vinciūnas, a director of the young generation, can be found in the repertoires of various Lithuanian theatres. He is already recognised as one of the most promising directors. While expanding his creative geography, this autumn Vinciūnas makes his debut at the National Kaunas Drama Theatre with the premiere of Open the Door. The performance is based on a play by Aristide Tarnagda, a playwright from Burkina Faso. In this interview, Justinas reflects on challenges, explorations and discoveries.

Interviewed by Liepa Kairytė 

Dossier:

Justinas Vinciūnas studied in Kaunas and volunteered at the National Kaunas Drama Theatre. He studied directing at the Lithuanian Academy of Music and Theatre as a pupil of Professor Gintaras Varnas. Vinciūnas is a laureate of the Ministry of Culture’s Debut of the Year Award. The creative team of the performance The Unburied Dead, which he directed, was awarded the Fortuna diploma. It also won the directorial debut prize at the “Spring of Lithuanian Theatre” festival. His work has been presented at the Hamburg Theatre (DE) and “The Starting Point” (LT) festivals.

Your young age is emphasised in many interviews and performance showcases, even though you do not work with stereotypically youthful themes, but rather with historical and deeply existential ones. What do you think a young director brings to theatre that differs from what a director with decades of experience has to offer?

I believe that every era has its mood, which changes in one way or another and requires a new perspective, a new form, and ultimately a new approach to the viewer. I feel that currently we are in an age of excess. Films can be watched anywhere, there are many plays, and there is plenty of everything. I do not hide that I feel exhausted from the excess. Images, playbills, advertisements, and presentations are everywhere. They are usually aestheticized, showing only one side of the façade. In the performance, I want to show what was traditionally hidden, to contradict the rules that make up the classical concept of art. I would like for the viewer to feel neither obligated nor intellectually discriminated against.

I seek connection and recognition in my works. I want the viewer to realise that their feelings are shared. If they do not feel that way, seeing another person’s perspective might still be interesting. A young creator should have the potential, intuition, or refined speech to describe the mood of present times. Finding your voice, which is uninfluenced by authorities, is a long and courageous journey that is difficult to undertake. When I see other creators who can incorporate an element of risk into their work, I immediately feel a great deal of respect, not necessarily for their success, but for their attempt to challenge the norm.

What is your creative process? Do you follow the director’s authority? If so, what helps you earn it? Or, on the contrary, do you take the approach of collective creation?

I do not see myself as a director who rules with an iron fist. Perhaps sometimes it is necessary, and that is one of my shortcomings. When I do not know something, I do not pretend otherwise. That becomes a starting point for us to search for solutions with the troupe. I try to listen and evaluate because older actors bring many valuable insights. Then the actors are motivated to be on stage. Sometimes a dictatorial approach leads to a mediocre performance. However, if you can build a sense of unity, collective thinking, and creativity, the feeling of “I did my part and left” disappears. Instead, there is a shared concern that everything goes well for everyone.

In 2023, you debuted with the performance The Unburied Dead (Kaunas City Chamber Theater). Since then, you have explored metaphysical, deeply existential and challenging themes: the Holocaust (Dust, State Youth Theater) and dramas of political life (radio play 1922: Between Cannibalism and Modernism). Now you are staging a performance about genocide and murder at the National Kaunas Drama Theatre. Why is it important for you to create works that address the most challenging themes of humanity’s collective downfall and explore the spiritual struggle of man?

Perhaps the word “genocide” is too heavy. I could not comprehend this concept at first. A big part of it is explored in the performance Dust, which attempts to understand the topic as thoroughly as possible. In the case of Open the Door, the concept of genocide is not as important nor is it the focus. While I agree that the performance attempts to rationalise political dilemmas, I am more interested in the individual human experience. I cannot say that I am not part of the genocide, or whether I am on one side or the other: these are questions I cannot answer. However, I can try to understand one person’s perspective by grasping it as much as possible. I hope that this performance conveys the sense that there is an attempt to articulate the perspective of one person.

I do not want to focus on everyday life when creating plays. While reflecting on previously seen performances, I orient myself towards experiences that are not part of everyday life. Therefore, I desire to explore topics that are sometimes distant or intangible at first glance. The attraction towards these topics comes from a desire to understand.

Apart from the material of a play or performance, What inspires you and helps you avoid becoming overwhelmed when facing difficult topics?

Humour, probably (laughs). I understand the heavy impact of such themes. I admit that many frustrating moments occur when thinking about these topics. They can be challenging, but humour helps to endure it. Sometimes there is room to absurdly laugh at unfunny things during rehearsals. The performance Open the Door will not necessarily consist of heavy content. It might take a lighter approach.

The performance Open the Door was created in collaboration with West African playwright Aristide Tarnagda. It is part of a project that brings together performing arts from Europe and Africa. Due to the norms (guidelines) of this project, the text of the play must remain close to the original. How do you feel working within these creative boundaries?

Working with project guidelines is clearly a challenge. Ideally, you would create without any constraints, since the main idea comes from the director rather than from outside sources. However, in this case, one of the responsibilities is to motivate and convince yourself, forget the conditions, and return to that idealistic form of creativity.

While watching the playwright’s interview video, I gained a clear intuition about his dramaturgy. It feels foreign to me. This was the starting point – the play was written in a style commonly used in the previous century. The playwright aimed for the concept of universality by asking what connects us. To achieve this, he chose the Greek tragedy dramatic format. It is a unique adaptation of the myth of Antigone, but the main focus is on the tragedy of two blood-unrelated brothers within the framework of a genocidal conflict. I am not trying to fulfil the playwright’s vision, which suggests that Lithuania is “far away”. I disagree and want to engage in a dialogue, to debate. I try to convert that contradiction, that framework, into a creative challenge. That is where the creative excitement lies – not necessarily agreeing with what is written or doing what the playwright suggests. The theme of the foreign is not the main focus of this performance, because the genocidal phenomenon mentioned in the play is a fairly old part of our country’s history, which unfortunately is becoming increasingly elusive. This situation is similar to an actor’s fate: sometimes they have to take on roles they did not choose, but that does not mean they lose the creative freedom in developing and performing the character.

How did the worldview of West Africa inspire you? Do the cultural differences disappear in the performance, and in what ways will it resonate with Lithuanian people?

That is probably one of the challenges. When we met with the actors, we discussed and decided against mimicking a distant culture. It can become a very slippery slope when presenting a culture without having participated in it, lived it, or experienced it. Some elements of the colour code remain, such as the elemental nature of Agrarian cultures, which helps to formulate small aspects. Despite portraying shepherds and herders, the performance looks for a place within the Lithuanian context. Whether it will succeed is uncertain, but we are trying to find certain points of identity. We spend a lot of rehearsal time contemplating and speculating whether the audience will understand.

The performance premieres at the National Kaunas Drama Theatre on September 13-15. The project is co-funded by the European Union, the Lithuanian Culture Institute, and the Lithuanian Council for Culture.

In collaboration with:

PROJECT IS FUNDED