This play is a dramatisation of the novel The White Shroud by exodus writer Antanas Škėma (1910-1961).

Number 87 takes down the elevator: up and down. He is wandering through his cracky memories in places of the interwar Kaunas, High Panemunė, and Vilnius. The 87th poet, Antanas Garšva, having no opportunity to vow to his creative work and achieve immortality of his soul, is forced to carry out a Sisyphean-like lift operator’s work in the biggest hotel in New York. His fragmented consciousness is haunted by homesickness, and sometimes images of women whom he loved. Garšva rejects love, ruptures human relationships, remains lonely in the cage of the elevator, but he still lives in the desire of hope fruition.

Mr. Garšva as a cog in a huge machine is recklessly looking for self-actualisation. He discards all his illusions and keeps his poetry to himself. However, a creative giddiness and desperate efforts to discover the truth bring suffering.

Opening –  October 12 – 13, and 17, 2012

Duration – 2 hours 50 minutes (with intermission)

The Main Stage

Attention! Smoking onstage.

Photographer Donatas Stankevičius