LNDT performances abroad 15 times: visits to Taipei, Antwerp, Brno and others

During the 85th season of the Lithuanian National Drama Theatre, the plays of the Lithuanian National Drama Theatre were performed abroad 15 times. Most recently, the first Asian tour of ‘Republic’ took place, where the play was presented to the Taiwanese audience, and the most Golden Stage Crosses-winning LNDT play ‘Quanta’, directed by Lukasz Twarkowski in May was shown in the Czech Republic at the National Theatre in Brno, in April at the DeSingel Theatre in Antwerp, and last December at the Boska Komedia Festival in Krakow.

In Taiwan, ‘Respublika’ was performed at the newly built TPAC, the Taipei Performing Arts Centre. LNDT's cooperation with this art institution started in early 2024, and finally it was decided to show ‘Republic’ in TPAC's most unique space, the Supertheatre, which is a combination of two theatrical halls with a capacity of 1,700 and 600 spectators. The Supertheatre was used for the first time and attracted new audiences who discovered the recently built TPAC Centre.

According to the producers Vidas Bizunevičius and Lukrecija Gužauskaitė, the first screening was attended by about 400 people, while the third screening could not accommodate everyone, with a queue of several hundred people. As always, after the last performance, the dancing was moved to a party with about 1,500 people.

"It was just an incredible journey with a Taiwanese audience who we didn't expect to be so raving and that the concept of freedom could be so vivid and so well understood and accepted in this country. But it is true. What happened with more than a thousand people in Taipei was very unexpected. Their energy was absolutely mind-blowing. By the way, on the first day - 4 June - it was the anniversary of the Tiananmen Square massacre in the country, so we included a photo of the square in the third part of the performance and it generated a very tumultuous and very supportive reaction from the public. We came back to Europe very happy and filled with the love that we received there. We are already planning further tours in Asia," says director Łukasz Twarkowski.

Before that, LNDT's production, ‘Quanta’, was shown in the Czech Republic on 20-21 May at the Theatre World Brno Festival at the National Theatre Brno, which is one of the co-producers of Quanta. This theatre normally only presents operas and ballets. According to the director, Czech audiences reacted much more sensitively to certain scenes of the play than in other countries. "I feel a strong connection with different audiences in different regions. It is an incredible privilege to be able to share several productions with the same people, who in this case were gathered not only from Brno, but also from Vienna, Prague, Bratislava and some cities in Poland,‘ said Łukasz Twarkowski, who was awarded the Golden Cross of the Stage for his direction of ’Quanta’.

The festival organisers also invited director Łukasz Twarkowski to a special discussion where he was asked to talk about the peculiarities of co-producing this show, as Quanta was created in collaboration with the Onassis Stegi Arts Centre in Athens, De Singel Theatre in Antwerp, the International Theatre Festival Boska Komedia, the National Theatre in Brno in the Czech Republic and the Adam Mickiewicz Institute in Poland. The latter also supported the tour of the play in Antwerp and Brno. "The production of Quanta was also funded by the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Lithuania.

Prior to the Czech tour, Quanta was performed in Antwerp at the DeSingel Theatre and last December at the Boska Komedia Festival in Krakow. Last November, two LNDT productions were shown in Paris during the Lithuanian season in France. ‘Fossilia’ by Eglė Švedkauskaitė opened the Lithuanian theatre showcase and was performed three times at the Théâtre de la Ville, a branch of the Théâtre des Abbesses in the Monmartre district, while ‘Concider the Lobster’ by Yana Ross, based on the works of the American writer David Foster Wallace, was performed three times at the Théâtre Nanterre-Amandiers in Paris.

In total, LNDT's productions were shown abroad 15 times during the 85th season. 268 performances took place on the premises of the theatre, with more than 79,000 spectators.