SEVEN SOLITUDES

Name: SEVEN SOLITUDES
Start: 2026-05-24T18:00:00+00:00
End: 2026-05-24T19:30:00+00:00

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National Kaunas Drama Theatre

At the Main Stage of the National Kaunas Drama Theatre (Laisvės Ave. 71, Kaunas)
1:30 (without intermission)

Premiere 2026

Based on the texts of Oscar Milosz

Direction, Set Design, and Lighting Concept Robert Wilson
Direction and Text Adaptation Charles Chemin
Set Design Stephanie Engeln
Light Designer Marcello Lumaca
Costume Design Flavia Ruggeri
Hair and Make-up Design Manu Halligan
Composer Hans Jörn Brandenburg
Video Artist Tomasz Jeziorski
Artistic collaboration Thaiz Bozano
Additional Music: Kinan Azmeh, Johann Sebastian Bach, Jennifer Koh, Dickie Landry, Lou Reed
Translated from French to Lithuanian by: Genovaitė Dručkutė, Vaclovas Šiugždinis, Valdas Petrauskas, Antanas Vaičiulaitis, Petras Kimbrys, Stasė Banionytė
Lithuanian text supervisor Daiva Čepauskaitė
English translation Mike Sens

Cast: Martyna Gedvilaitė, Kęstutis Jakštas, Gytis Laskovas, Miglė Navasaitytė, Agnieszka Ravdo, Dainius Svobonas, Vladimiras Šerstabojevas

Performance in Lithuanian with English surtitles

7 solitudes is a poetic journey within Oscar Milosz’s work and Robert Wilson‘s creative mind.

The performance combines Miłosz’s poetry, his prose and fables, with his more dramatic and metaphysical works, investigating love, loneliness, death, and the neverending search for light and harmony, while raising profound existential questions about humanity, its place in the universe and the passage of time.

The extraordinary world of Miłosz’s imagination is brought to life through the lens of Wilson’s poetic scope, reconstructed through his unsettling subjective abstraction and his striking imagery. The poet is the central figure of the piece and represents a fascinating figure, whose words make our world more complex – and at the same time simpler -to comprehend. To accompany him in his quest, he summons a fictional double, the famous dramatic character Don Juan, called on stage directly from scenes of a play written by Miłosz in his youth, portraying the insatiable hunger for life and the desire for conquest. These scenes are intertwined with others from the later play Miguel Mañara, in which the main character, Don Juan of Seville, seeks his redemption. Through these characters the actors on stage present universal figures that reveal the complexity, the beauty, and the inexorable absurdity of the human soul.

In the play we follow the Poet in his creation process, as he sets and yet overcomes the limits of his imaginary worlds. Wading through his doubts, wandering through mysterious and unexplored territories, he brings us back a freedom from a place that only poets can reach, a limitless destination, eternity itself.

This piece is Robert Wilson’s ultimate gesture, and it is the gesture we offer to bring forward the unique vision of this Poet of the Stage.

Poets are immortal.

The premiere of “Seven Solitudes” is dedicated to its initiating director, Robert Wilson (1941–2025). It is his final work created for the drama theatre stage.

While the director was still alive, the scenography and other key elements of the production were created, along with the overall concept of the play. While preparing for the premiere based on the works of the French poet of Lithuanian origin, O. V. de L. Milosz, Robert Wilson visited the National Kaunas Drama Theatre twice: in January 2025, when he created the visual project book, and again in June, when he realised the visual concept of the upcoming premiere (Stage A).

Following the unexpected passing of director Robert Wilson in 2025, a strategically important decision was made to continue the creative process he had begun, ensuring a respectful realisation of the artist’s creative legacy. Consequently, during the rehearsal held in October 2025 (Bauprobe), the director’s work was carried on by his creative team: text adaptation author and director Charles Chemin, scenographer Stephanie Engeln, lighting designer Marcello Lumaca, costume designer Flavia Ruggeri, make-up and wig designer Manuela Halligan, video artist Tomasz Jeziorski, along with the actors of the National Kaunas Drama Theatre and its extensive technical team.

This rehearsal made it possible to test the scenography and lighting on the actual stage and to carry out the necessary adjustments.

About The Director

Charles Chemin is a French-American director, dramaturg, and lighting designer born in 1983.

In 2025, he became artistic director of The Watermill Center, a multidisciplinary arts centre founded in 1992 by Robert Wilson in New York State. Previously, he was the director of the Summer Program & Festival, where he presented works by numerous international emerging and established artists such as Ugo Rondinone, Isabella Rossellini, Robert Nava, Lucinda Childs, Regina Galindo, Alicja Kwade, and Kelsey Lu.

As a director, he works across various media in many countries. He was an associate artist at the National Theatre in Florence, creating the performance “interno/esterno” based on texts by Maeterlinck, which was presented at the Théâtre de la Ville, following a long-standing collaboration with the National Theater of Craiova. He has staged contemporary operas such as Eric Breton’s “Le Messie” at the Opéra d’Avignon and Roberto Valera’s “Cubanacan” at the Havana Opera, and has created scenic sound pieces such as “20 silences” at the Vicenza Festival with composer Dom Bouffard, based on research at NASA on the unconscious of astronauts. He also developed live works in museums with artist Carlos Soto at the Performa Biennial in New York and the Moscow Biennial of Contemporary Art, and dance pieces with Caroline Breton, including at the Ménagerie de Verre in Paris and Orléans National Scene.

After a long career as an actor, he has worked as co-director and dramaturg for more than twenty works by Robert Wilson since 2009, including “Mary Said” with Isabelle Huppert, “PESSOA” with Maria de Medeiros, and “Krapp’s Last Tape”, in which he directed Wilson. He also adapted plays such as “Three Women” based on texts by Albee and “UBU” based on Jarry. In 2024, he created a new version of “Carmen” for the choreographer Israel Galván, in which he directed the singers, including at the Paris Philharmonie.

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