THE CARD INDEX

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Tadeusz Różewicz

dir. G. Varnas

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Duration

3 h

Age

14+

Type

Two-act play

Culture pass?

Accessibility?

Yes

Tickets

English friendly

05.11

18:00

THE CARD INDEX

Didžioji scena

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Description

The Card Index is a premiere by the director Gintaras Varnas at the National Kaunas Drama Theatre based on the Polish poet and playwright’s Tadeusz Różewicz’s (1921–2014) play. Tadeusz Różewicz is one of the most prominent representatives of Polish post-war modernism, known as “anxious modernism”. He wrote this play in 1958/59, enthralled by the Theatre of the Absurd writers Samuel Beckett and Eugene Ionesco. It is still considered one of the most important works of drama in the history of Polish literature.

The play takes place in the main character’s room, where he spends time in bed. He is lonely, confused, dissatisfied, tired, and has lost control of his life. His home is no longer a safe haven; anyone can enter it without knocking, it is more reminiscent of a street where various people walk carrying out various matters. The character’s actions are aimless; his political views, unclear; his beliefs, vague; and his attitude, passive. He is faceless, ageless, nameless, and jobless. He is a main character without identity. His life is broken up into separate episodes and resembles a disorganised collection of biographical pages—a card index. As the play progresses, some events become clearer, while others fade away like the negative film of memory. The fragmented composition of The Card Index is like a file of human consciousness, combining the memories of the past, the emptiness of the present, and the haze of the future. This surreal, tragicomic collage of episodes from the main character’s life represents the inner ruptures, value and emotional chaos of the generation that survived the war. “It is a play that fits our great times. The times are great, only the people are puny,” the play’s characters claim ironically. Does this general state of decay, chaos and futility, lack of constructive ideas, and weariness not remind us of the present?

It is an ironic play about a person at a crossroads, about his inner journey and his attempts to grasp the meaning of life. It is the theatre of imagination, dreams, and memories. It is live theatre that touches on the essence of contemporary issues.

The performance premieres on 18, 19 and 20 October 2024.

The project is financed