RADVILA DARIUS, SON OF VYTAUTAS

“Radvila Darius, son of Vytautas” is a live dialogue between live music performed by four instrumentalists and video excerpts from the archives of Lithuanian Radio and Television.
The period of censorship at Lithuanian Television ended in the last years of the eighties. The air was flooded with issues, suggestions, and comments accumulated over the years – everyone had to say their word. In the absence of formal freedom, the viewers soon got involved in the quest for a new identity, heroes, and vision of a better future.
Music commenting on the sights of the time immerses the viewers into a tragicomic narrative of problems, which has begun thirty years ago and continues to the present day.
Nostalgia for the past is replaced by ironic interpretations of sounds of the eighties and nineties, while the questions formed by absurd repetitions and sentimental inclusions continually arise in a collage atmosphere: does that all represent the quest for “Lithuanian” character, or is it a mere routine of human being and everyday life?
The piece features video materials from the archives of Lithuanian Television: fragments of TV shows “Mirror”, “Tete-a-tete”, “Vilnius and its citizens”, and “On a Sunday Morning” from the period of 1989–1991.