For the ninth consecutive year, the upcoming summer in Klaipėda will be marked by quality theatre. Beginning in mid-May, the festival opens with a week-long showcase of selected performances by leading Lithuanian theatre-makers, followed by the international programme unfolding at a more relaxed pace. This curated lineup offers both locals and visitors the chance to experience exceptional productions from across the globe. The first announced guest in this year’s international programme is “Leviathan”, written and directed by French director Lorraine de Sagazan. It premiered last year at the renowned Avignon Festival.
France. “Leviathan”
“As one of the key arteries through which global theatre trends flow, the Avignon Festival attracts theatre lovers, creators, and critics from across the world. We are thrilled to bring “Leviathan”, a performance that premiered to critical acclaim at Avignon, to Lithuania, offering our audience the opportunity to experience it,” says Karolina Sadlauskaitė, coordinator of the festival’s international programme and international cultural project manager at Klaipėda Drama Theatre.
“Leviathan” will be presented on the 7th of June. Due to its large scale, the performance cannot be staged at the festival’s home venue, Klaipėda Drama Theatre, and will instead be presented at the Culture Centre of Klaipėda “Žvejų Rūmai”. According to Sadlauskaitė, the venue’s size and location perfectly align with the production’s conceptual direction: “Considering the themes explored in the play, “Žvejų Rūmai” felt especially appropriate, as it resonates both geographically and socially with the production’s intention to remain close to the people.”
This year’s festival slogan, “To Meet the Beast”, finds powerful expression in Lorraine de Sagazan’s work, which reveals the monstrosity of bureaucracy within the judicial system. In this show, the director uses theatre as a counter-space to question the workings of the justice system, its gaps and its alternatives. The Leviathan, an ambivalent biblical figure with an immense philosophical and literary heritage, asks the question: who is the monster?
A spectacular detail of the visually striking performance is the presence of Oasis, a horse specially trained for the stage. Fabienne Darge, writing for “Le Monde”, poetically described the animal as “magnificent, an apparition synonymous with freedom, power and, perhaps, consolation”. The production has also earned praise from leading American theatre critic Helen Shaw, who wrote in “The New Yorker”: “In one instance, the permeation of real and carnivalesque, true and false, amateur and professional in Avignon reduced me to rubble. In “Leviathan,” a terrifying burlesque of the French court system directed by Lorraine de Sagazan, actors wearing plastic masks and moving like windup toys act out several swift “immediate” trials: legal procedures that are offered to those who are caught red-handed.”
“Leviathan” was the first performance in the international programme to have its tickets released for sale.
Ukraine. “Process”
Special guests of the festival are Ukrainian theatre-makers presenting their own interpretation of Kafka. According to the festival’s international programme coordinator, the performance arrives under challenging circumstances. “Beyond customs issues and lengthy transportation of the set, we cannot be certain that the entire Ukrainian team will be permitted to leave the country. We’ll only find out a few days before the performance,” says Sadlauskaitė. Still, despite the challenges involved in bringing “Process” to Klaipėda, the performance, directed by David Petrosyan, deserves the audience’s full attention.
The story by Franz Kafka is familiar to many who have encountered literary classics. Early in the morning, unknown individuals break into Josef K.’s home and arrest him. The reason remains unclear. Attempts to find out “what for” and how to justify it turn out to be futile. Josef K. desperately tries to talk to the judges – to no avail. It only gets more and more entangled in the labyrinth of surreal bureaucracy. Is the process progressing? Neither he nor the audience knows. The court’s decision is also unknown, but Josef K. feels that his time is running out. Once, Shakespeare compared human life to theatre. Kafka went even further: he saw life as one endless trial, senseless and merciless.
“Process” will be performed on May 24th.
Spain. “Forever”
“This performance has toured extensively worldwide and remains incredibly relevant due to its sensitive social themes,” says Sadlauskaitė about the Spanish production “Forever”, scheduled for 28 May. “One of the most striking and impressive visual elements is the rotating stage, which carries the tender, sometimes comical reality of one family’s everyday life.”
“Forever” is a heartwarming, humorous, and ironic story about a family moving away from the life they once dreamed of. The performance explores themes such as the contradictions of love, parenthood, child-rearing, disability, overprotection, sexuality and violence. Perhaps the most disturbing (and the most exciting) thing about this play is that it could all too easily be the story of our own lives. The performance is entirely non-verbal, with actors wearing exaggerated, comical masks that highlight the play’s emotional depth while still provoking laughter. This contrast lends the performance remarkable impact and resonance.
“An absolute must for all theatre lovers, not only because of its uniqueness but also because of the amazing story it tells,” wrote Vicente I. Sánchez in “Nueva Tribuna”. Meanwhile, Javier Ortiz wrote in “Teatro Magazine”: “If you have never seen one of Kulunka’s shows, don’t hesitate: buy your tickets as soon as possible and go and enjoy the experience offered by this company, which tells stories that speak directly to the heart, without uttering a single word.”
“Forever” will be performed on May 28th.
Poland. “The Discomfort of Evening”
Marieke Lucas Rijneveld’s book “The Discomfort of Evening”, which shocked the Netherlands, won the International Booker Prize for Literature and made them the youngest ever winners of the prize. The haunting, poetic, and macabre story is told through the experiences of a deeply traumatised ten-year-old girl. It offers an unusual glimpse into everyday life in a rural village.
Directed by Małgorzata Wdowik, this spectacularly staged production explores how grief imprints itself on both the body and the imagination. The world of the performance, where eternal winter and penetrating cold reign, is full of magical thinking, spells, and prayers. All this is revealed to the audience through the eyes of a little girl entering adolescence. She is at once an observer of the course of events, a narrator, and a creator of fantasies – she retains the memory of the tragedy, grapples with feelings of guilt and responsibility for her parents, and struggles with the pangs of emptiness. It is also a story about maturing and the end of childhood.
The Polish stage interpretation of “The Discomfort of Evening” received the top set design award at the Boska Komedia festival in Krakow, with Polish theatre critics praising Aleksandr Prowaliński’s lighting for its magical, surreal atmosphere. Prowaliński is also the production’s set designer.
“Gabor Maté, a physician, said that children don’t get traumatised because they get hurt; they get traumatised because they’re alone with the hurt. This play starts strong with the death of a family member. The rest is a rolling snowball of pain, separation, and loneliness,” wrote Natalia Jarczynska in her review. She described this remarkable work of performing arts as “the snowy, lonely universe of trauma”.
“The Discomfort of Evening” will conclude the international programme with a performance on June 12th, presented in partnership with the Adam Mickiewicz Institute.
“TheATRIUM” Lithuanian Theatre Showcase: May 13th–17th
International Programme: May 24th–June 12th
Programme and tickets: https://theatrium.lt/en/
