Tha State Small Theatre of Vilnius, in collaboration with the Public Institution “Darbininkai“, invites the audience to a visual poetic narrative by the young generation theatre director and creator of audiovisual experiences Naubertas Jasinskas – a performance based on the script “Unfaithful“ by the famous Swedish film and theatre director, one of the creators of modern cinema Ingmar Bergman (1918–2007). This is one of Bergman’s last film scripts, which he never managed to make a film from. In 2000, his muse and former lover, the actress Liv Ulman, did so. This time, the legendary director’s film script is adapted for the theatre stage.
According to director N. Jasinskas, he chose the State Small Theatre of Vilnius to stage Bergman’s “Unfaithful“ primarily because of his aesthetic sensibility. “In fact, classics are not always suitable because of their context, but Bergman and the State Small Theatre have a common aesthetic sense through which they can merge“, – the young director is convinced. According to Jasinskas, he feels it is important to use classical works, deconstructing a certain tradition, to talk about modernity.
At the end of his life, the director says, Bergman’s work explores the concepts of truth and love, and rethinks the perspective of dysfunctional or compromising relationships. In doing so, he dives even deeper – into his memories, his youth. “It seems to me that from the beginning of his work to his last film scripts, you can see a very big change – a breaking of tradition within himself. This is one of the most important themes, because it is about the possibility of change not through generations, but within a generation“, – Jasinskas is convinced.
In “Unfaithful“, Bergman is concerned with the world of the artist, with the conflicts, passions, creative quests and failures that tear at his soul. He draws on years of rich personal experience to write “Unfaithful“. In this work, the ageing writer is visited by Marianne, a very realistic character created by his imagination, who tells her own dramatic story and that of the writer. Marianne is an actress, her husband is a famous conductor, they have a little daughter, Isabella, and they are a beautiful, harmonious family. But Marianne falls in love with a family friend, a theatre and film director, who is not doing very well. This frivolous, irresponsible move turns into a terrible family disaster.
According to the director, the play is primarily about love and the perspective of infidelity: how and why the so-called duality, the inability to express oneʼs needs, is born in a human being; why we deny our lust, even though it is inexorable; what happens when we donʼt talk and ignore, silence the truth. Jasinskas tells the story of the play not from the perspective of Bergman’s alter-ego, but from the perspective of the woman – the unfaithful one.
N. Jasinskas’ work can be divided into two categories: the search for new theatrical forms and drama theatre performances, which propose to explore different perspectives of human relationships. These aspects become a crucial step in the construction of a new stage work.
The project is partly funded by the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Lithuania and the Lithuanian Council for Culture
Project sponsor Vilnius City Municipality
The play is presented by arrangement with Josef Weinberger Limited, London on behalf of the Ingmar Bergman Foundation
The right to show the play is granted by the Ingmar Bergman Foundation: www.ingmarbergman.se
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