Árpád Schilling, together with Ildikó Gáspár co-writer and artistic collaborator, and with the actors of the theatre’s company and some actors invited specially for the production, will create a performance at Jaunimo teatras in Vilnius. The topic of the play is autonomy. In accordance to the director's working method, the work started with a research period, when the creative team tried to get to know to the Lithuanian cultural, political and social context, the local people’s and the performers’ connections to the chosen topic.

Schilling, who has already presented his works in Lithuania several times, and created a performance in Vilnius in 2015 entitled ‘Didis blogis’ by Marius Ivaškevičius, returned to a not entirely unfamiliar environment. Autonomy as a topic involves a number of problems which are present not only in Lithuania, but also in Hungary and in all post-Soviet, currently independent countries: how small countries face their one-time great and glorious "imperial" past, what is their relation to the current “great empires" or to the idea of the common ​​Europe. We are familiar with the desire to comply, the self-censorship, the fear of speaking, the desire to inclusion or with the inability to cooperate.

Valentinas is one of the regime change’s winners, and owes his wealth to his talent and initiative too: he was at the right place at the right time. His three sons, however, are struggling to find their way to financial independence and adult life. Simas, his grandson - a boy in his twenties - wants to make a movie about his family. Suddenly he looks at this seemingly very ordinary family in a completely different way: everything he thought solid and unshakable is called into question; the past of the family and their long-believed common history seem to contain secrets that no one wants to - or cannot - know and speak about. The young man faces the old, great question: for many of us, our family’s glorious past is the sure foundation upon which our whole self-confidence is based. If we disturb or shake it, shall we risk everything collapsing around and inside of us? Could it turn out that a world based on lies is the only sustainable world in time?

CAST

Performed by Kristina Andrejauskaitė, Andrius Bialobžeskis, Dainius Gavenonis, Ina Kartašova, Aleksas Kazanavičius, Viktorija Kuodytė, Rugilė Latvėnaitė, Simas Lunevičius, Valentinas Masalskis, Janina Matekonytė, Vidas Petkevičius, Lukas Petrauskas, Dovilė Šilkaitytė, Neringa Varnelytė

Based on the actors' improvisations, written by Árpád Schilling and Ildikó Gáspár
Directed by Árpád Schilling
Artistic collaborator: Ildikó Gáspár
Lithuanian text translation by Asta Paulauskytė
Music by Gintaras Sodeika
Assistant, interpreter: Saulė Norkutė
Production manager: Ildikó Ságodi

Thanks to Endre Bojtár.

Read and download the PLAY in Hungarian and in Lithuanian.
No unauthorized use in full, or part, is permitted without the expressed written permission of the Authors. For further enquiries, please contact me in the 'Contact' section.

Photo: Laura Vansevičienė

PRESS

• Ieva Tumanovičiūtė: Šeimos gyvenimo scenos. 7md.lt. 06. 03. 2018.
   
• Kristina Steiblytė: Autonomijos paieškos valstybėje ir teatre. 15min.lt, 17. 03. 2018.