Based on the play by Marius Ivaškevičius, "Išvarymas" directed by Oskar Koršunov is the most popular play of the Lithuanian National Drama Theater. In the 78th season of LNDT, "Išvarymo" viewers are waiting for new actors in the main roles. From the autumn, the main role of Ben will be played by Kęstutis Cicėnas instead of Ainios Storpirščias, while Gailė Butvilaitė will play Eglė instead of Monika Vaičiulytė. The audience will be able to see the new actors on June 27, and on June 28, the duet of Monika Vaičiulytė and Ainios Storpirščias will complete the 77th season and perform for the last time.
O. Koršunovas: coming to "Ivaryma" and leaving it are equally responsible matters
"It is not the first time that we have to introduce new actors for the main roles, people who in a certain sense create the performance - it is especially difficult to replace them. And Monika Vaičiulytė and Ainis Storpirštis are like that. The roles of Ben and Eglė are very loosely connected with the actors themselves, with their characters and talents. Such roles influence the whole life, other roles. But there are no irreplaceable people anywhere. Theater is ruthless in this sense.
At first it seems impossible to introduce new people. For example, in "Romeo and Juliet" we had no idea who could replace Rasas Samuolytė, Gytis Ivanauskas or Darius Gumauskas, this is a play created by them. However, young people come and perform well, it is very useful for them, because when they take over the roles, they take over the experience of their older colleagues, all the discoveries. Talented actors are able to add their own to these. As for both Kęstas and Gaile - they are my students - they know well what my theater is, they have worked with me a lot and I have a lot of faith in them. Kęstas and Gailė are burning with endless desire.
To tell the truth, Ainis Storpirštis was always a very big authority for Kęst, as far as I could see from the side. And I think that Kęstas goes to play Beno with much higher expectations, faith, and hope than one might think.
Yes, of course, the role is very big, very significant. You can only play Ben well if you become a certain sign of the era, a recognizable symbol. Ben, in a sense, carries the cross of all expats. And Eglė's story is a kind of modern epic of "Eglė's Queen of Serpents", where she goes beyond the seas, marries a representative of another civilization and puts on a burka forever. Coming to this performance and leaving it are equally responsible things. These are not easy decisions for people. Coming up, you need to understand what it means to be on stage all the time, when your every move is watched by the audience for six hours, when you have to make them laugh and cry.
The social, societal, even metaphysical and national tension implied by the play does not allow the actors to relax at all. And I think Kęstas feels full responsibility, he knows what awaits him. It may seem like a play full of laughs, but it is the carrying of the cross of the age. Unfortunately, the show will not lose its relevance for a long time. I say unfortunately because those one-way adventures are not only fascinating, but also sad. And in fact, it already becomes something more than significant", says the director of the play Oskars Koršunovas.
The future Egle - Gaila Butvilaita is no stranger to the difficulties of emigrants
Gailė Butvilaitė, a young actress who recently graduated from Oskar Koršunov's course, who will play Eglė in "Išvaryme" from the fall, spent eighteen years with her parents in Venezuela. The actress who lived in exile admits that she found many things close to her when watching this play for the first time: "After 18 years in Venezuela, I moved to London, I lived there for about a year. At first it was very fun and good, but then it became very difficult. I had no more money, no more work. I didn't know where and how to lay out my future. I called my mother, desperately asking what to do. She invited to Lithuania. I came back, went to "Išvaryma" (as soon as it premiered, and at that time I was already preparing to study acting), the performance irritated me. Things that have just been experienced - on stage! The feelings of the heroes were close and recognizable. Although at that time I still had a hard time understanding the Lithuanian language, especially the jokes and swearing, and even more so in the theater, but "Išvarymas" was understandable to me, I remember that Vandal was the scariest person on earth to me!
For me, personally, the most important point of the performance is expressed by Eglė, when she talks about the works of art brought from all over the world to the British Museum and exhibited to indifferent visitors. This is the most recognizable feeling of an expat, when you, a person worth something, come to a great country (the very fact that you live in one of the most important cities in the world makes you feel special), but later you realize that you are just one of many, because the same, there are also some worth from Colombia, Germany, Spain. All newcomers experience the same feeling that they will never be valued in the same way as those who were born there. And so it turns out that you take away your value and devalue yourself as a person, just like those works of art in the British Museum. A home would have a very different value, for sure. For me, this is the essence of the whole "Išvarymo", - admits Gailė Butvilaitė.
The young actress does not hide that she really wants the role of Eglė: "I just felt that it was mine, I felt that I could play it. And now, recently, it became scary, because I realized that this is really happening, that I will have to appear in front of the audience. Monika Vaičiulytė is amazing in all aspects. I like her paradox the most: she is very beautiful and charming, but at the same time she manages to bring out the most disgusting things in herself. It's heartbreaking to watch. You don't doubt her at all, you trust her one hundred percent. Now when I'm rehearsing, I'm amazed at Monika's energy, after all, she "leads" all the scenes with Aini, she gives all of herself. In addition, it is very beautiful to me how precisely, cleanly and clearly Monika and Ainis have arranged the joint scenes. The logic of their actions is immediately clear. There are no doubts, "gray" areas. Therefore, it is easy for us, we clearly understand the situation and how to implement it."
K. Cicėnas: This is a big theater school and a good challenge
The role of Ben Ivanov created by Ainis Storpirščis will be taken over by Kęstutis Cicėnas, who is already familiar to LNDT viewers, playing Benjamin in the play "The Martyr" and Tebaldas in the play "The Amazing and Heartbreaking Story of Romeo and Juliet". He was a bit more cautious before accepting the offer: "At first I was ambiguous. First of all, I doubted, because "Išvaryme" works with very "stuck" actors. Ainio's team is his fellow students, their strong mutual bond can be seen in the performance, so I wondered if I could really join that team. But later I realized that it would be foolish to refuse such an opportunity. It is a big theater school, a very good challenge. The role of Ben is very grateful - the whole life of the hero is revealed in the play. What Ainis did, he did virtuosically. He does not allow himself to work "halfway". The fact that I'm going to be a bit different from him because it's not a role you can work with without putting yourself in, but I'm glad that all the old-timers have welcomed me. I feel a lot of support from the whole team, which shows that "Expulsion" is important to them, they want the play to continue to live. This is also a boost for me, it motivates me."
Kęstutis Cicėnas, unlike his classmate Gailė, has not lived abroad, but finds similarities with the character in other aspects: "Yes, I have not tasted the bread of an emigrant, but the character of Ben is close to me in a metaphysical sense. He cares about extraterrestrial things. After certain events, Ben tries to answer the question of what a person is. He is searching, he wants to create himself. This consumes more energy than striving to find a very good job, a very good salary, to dress nicely, which is what people in the diaspora want. That makes him very interesting to me and I find this and that in common. Ben is more concerned with what's in the air than what's on the ground. That's the beauty of this character and the tragedy of it."
Ainis Storpiristis: it's time to travel further
Ainis Storpiristis, who played Ben Ivanov in more than eighty performances for almost six years, says that he felt that he had simply run out of words, themes and it was time to move on: "Izvarymas" was a very difficult performance, it was a demonstration of my abilities. I crammed everything I knew into it: lots of movement, quality singing, and insanely intense acting.
In the world you create by acting, words begin and end in a moment, no phrase sounds new like a discovery that stirs something inside. And I began to feel that I was very close to it. So I thought, that means enough. This work was expensive for me, so it's better to leave now, while I still remember, I remember everything that happened in the performance - both beautiful and dark memories, because after that you gradually start to "do" the work.
I remember what Vlad Bagdon said about Faust and Othello when I was still studying. He said: I can't and don't want to act one, and the other I can, but I don't want to. At the time I did not understand him, such a statement seemed like an act of arrogance or the result of internal conflicts, but now I understand that it was true.
If I allow myself to gossip about people who remain in the performance, even though I shouldn't, then first of all I have to act differently myself, - says the actor and explains with a smile, - Well, so that I can continue to gossip. Family, relationships, other needs, other visions appeared in my life and I just keep on going. It's my decision, no one else's."
When asked if he will now come to "Ivaryma" as a spectator, A. Storpiristis does not rule out that possibility: "Maybe I will go. I've always wanted to sit in the hall for once in peace and see how it looks," he says cheerfully.
Monika Vaičiulytė: Egle from "Išvarymo" became my business card
"I created Egle. This and no other. Lively, full-blooded, desperate, unrelenting, and most importantly, very realistic. I was teetering on a certain edge. Sometimes I felt the hall go silent, not knowing if it was still acting or my own agony.
I went beyond my limits: I went to play with injuries when the best doctors said I wouldn't walk, and I never felt like a hero - I thought it had to be, because Egle would never hurt. Someone has said that emotionally I have created several women in one character.
It's no secret that I was invited to Vilnius for this role and it became my business card. It is a great honor for me that out of all the "Evictions" built in Europe, I am and will forever remain the first Eglė.
You have to be modest, but you probably don't have to lie either: I've done a lot of work, and the point of it all is that it was never work. Marius Ivaškevičius once told me: "You created more than I wrote in the play." I think there can be no greater compliment from the author. Such compliments remain in the heart, and not only the words of famous artists, but also of ordinary viewers. My Facebook message section is full of letters from viewers who thanked me for the role, recognizing themselves, their sisters and daughters in it. Thank you, my beloved viewers, in whose hall as many as 60 thousand sat during this year.
Why am I leaving "Expulsion"? One of Eglė's most important phrases is "I'm hungry", meaning that she is hungry for life, love and self-expression. I, like her, must be hungry.
Of course, the decision of my partner Ainis to leave also affected mine. I had a choice: rehearse or quit. And I realized that rehearsing with a new colleague would mean doing the work all over again and creating a new Egle, and I don't want to create a new one because I love the original. And I don't really believe in all "copy paste" versions. I myself have very painfully experienced the feeling of how quickly an actor can be replaced. I can't change people like that. This is loyalty not so much to someone else as to one's own moral beliefs. If what we created was born from us, it remains Ours. As an actress, I might be able to continue such work, but as Monika - not. I have to be honest with myself.
Thanks to all former colleagues. It is unbelievable that there were so many creative people in one place.
Do I think it's time to say goodbye? Apparently, the actor is created in such a way that he will always not have enough. But someday it would still end... And let it end now, while I'm still "hungry" and brave like Egle. Probably, Eglė has many of my own qualities, and the main one is that "do what you want, but no one will take away my inner freedom". And everything else, as Eglė would say "nevermind" (it doesn't matter - lit.). And let me add: I LOVE it", says actress Monika Vaičiulytė.
"Eviction" will be shown in the near future on June 27. (the main roles will be played by Kęstutis Cicėnas and Gailė Butvilaitė) and on June 28. (Ainis Storpiristis and Monika Vaičiulytė will play the main roles for the last time). In the next season, "Eviction" will be shown on October 3, 15, and November 28.
Tickets for all performances of the new season of the 78th season of the Lithuanian National Drama Theater are on sale tomorrow, June 21.
