Due to the planned reconstruction works of the building, the first premiere of the new season 79 will be presented by the Lithuanian National Drama Theater (LNDT) at the Anykščiai Culture Center on October 5. This will be the first performance of the famous Scandinavian theater and dance creator Jo Strųmgren in Lithuania, created for the Lithuanian National Drama Theater, although the artist has already presented his works in our country many times.
A dance performance on migration themes
In Lithuania, Jo Strųmgren will create a play about migration and the eternal belief, familiar to many, that only somewhere else - across the border, across the door or across the ocean - is better than here. This belief, according to the director, has forced people throughout the ages to leave their homes, travel and try to create a better life. A door was chosen as a symbol between "here" and "there" for the performance (both for the title and the scenography).
"There is a very strong belief that there will always be something better on the other side. This belief makes people move. Somewhere in Europe, in a land divided by national borders, languages, religions and geographical barriers, the phenomenon of migration has always existed. It is a way to survive and a way to resist, an opportunity to start life anew, and also to burn bridges, to leave everything behind. In the performance "Durys", with the help of movement and dance, we travel through different historical periods and regions in order to see the patterns that have always existed, the reasons for migration and how it changes in different nations", the playwright, director and choreographer of "Durų" tells about the new performance.
In the performance, which combines dance, drama and absurd roles, actors will create: Rasa Samuolytė, Rimantė Valiukaitė, Rytis Saladžius, Diana Anevičiūtė, Žygimantė Jakštaitė, Augustė Pociūtė, Ugnė Šiaučiūnaitė and dancer Mantas Stabačinskas. The artist of the performance is Goda Palekaitė, who created the scenography for the recently released LNDT performance "The Republic of Happiness", the lighting artist is Vilius Vilutis. Knowing the director's stylistics and how he likes irony, the Lithuanian performance should also not lack comedic aspects.
The themes of the shows range from football to melodrama features
Jo Strųmgrenas is well known to the Lithuanian audience interested in contemporary dance. He has already presented ten of his works here, mostly dance performances. The artist's first trip to Lithuania took place in 1999, when he contacted Audronis Imbras, the founder of the Lithuanian Contemporary Dance Center, while looking for places where he could tour and avoiding going to Brussels (at that time it was fashionable in Norway). Although the funding for art in our country was not great, Strømgren was happy to find many enthusiastic people and says he is glad that he started with friendship and not business.
The general feature of the director's performances are topical themes and healthy humor, although the themes are very diverse. "For example, the performance "Virus" explores the influence of a virus created in an isolated bunker in the near future on humanity. Among his works is a music-based theater performance that explores the experience of emotional imprisonment in a certain life situation ("The road is only the surface") or an imaginary journey through time through agitations and fortifications, power and powerlessness, feudalism and individualism ("Salve Regine"). On stage, J. Strųmgren examines the topic of football, the plasticity of players, the limits and possibilities of table tennis, the stories of Coco Chanel, as well as the narratives of nurses who have nothing to do due to the lack of patients and injure and heal each other, the motives and possibilities of the decision-making of dissidents of the former Soviet Union". - says Martynas Budraitis, head of LNDT.
Speaking about the latest work, the director says: "This spring I directed a comedy based on my own text, where the audience laughed like crazy, choreographed an abstract ballet to modern music, created a concert performance for a pop artist and built a house." After working at LNDT, I will be working with a hip-hop group, and then the Danish Theater invited me to produce a play that explores the extremes of melodrama. I mention this so that you understand how wide my field of challenges is and that I am ready to enter a bubble in Lithuania that has nothing to do with anyone except us and a strange idea."
Premiere - in Anykščiai, later "Durys" - Beautiful and in Vilnius
Through a naive and associative look at a group of people separated by a wall, the performance "Doors" aims to reveal the most disappointing and destructive features of people. Since everything always looks more interesting on the other side, the narrow door becomes an important threshold for change. But no one is satisfied with what they have, the search for something better becomes a never-ending process. Are we free people, maybe even charming and creative, or are we still hopelessly attached to our habits, like Pavlov's dogs?" - asks the Norwegian developer.
The performance is supported by "Durys". The Ministry of Culture, and the implementation is supported by partners: Norwegian Embassy, Anykščiai District Municipality, Anykščiai Cultural Center. The co-producer of the performance is "Jo Strųmgren Kompani". Its premiere will take place on October 5-6 at the Anykščiai Cultural Center, on October 10. - at the National Drama Theater of Kaunas, on October 11-12 - in the Small Hall of LNDT.
