LNDT “LOKIS” TO BE PRESENTED AT OPERA AND BALLET THEATER
Moment of the performance. Photo by Andrej Vasilenko
Lithuanian National Drama Theater’s performance “Lokis”, dir. Łukasz Twarkowski has already visited the audiences of Torun, Warsaw and Madrid. The creative team of the performance, who have recently returned from the capital of Spain, are counting positive Spanish reviews and preparing to perform at the Lithuanian National Opera and Ballet Theater on May 8.
Last year the play connecting three tragic stories about the thin line separating mad love from hatred triumphed at the Golden Cross of the Stage Awards, earning even 4 major prizes. “Lokis”, which sports a number of super modern stage solutions, has already managed to gather a circle of loyal fans who have watched the play several times.
Due to the reconstruction of Lithuanian National Drama Theater, on November 6, 2018 the performance was shown to the full auditorium of the Lithuanian National Opera and Ballet Theater. The orchestral pit was transformed into the Fan Zone, in which the spectators, who had bought tickets to this zone, could dance together with the actors in the second part of the play. The show on May 8 is going to have the Fan Zone as well.
Looking forward to this performance, we would like to present a few extracts of Madrid Theater critics’ reviews, translated into English.
***
Of all the premiers presented at the recent festival in November, I think the best was “Lokis” by the Polish director Lukasz Twarkowski – because of its overflowing freedom in combining languages, the flawless work of the team of the Lithuanian National Drama Theater, the energy conveyed by decibels, and the ability to stretch the string connecting the play with the spectator to such an extent. And no, I didn’t like “Medea” by Simon Stone. There is an urgent need to reconsider what a myth means today, instead of adhering to the stories told to us by the classics, supplementing them with modern costumes and prescribing an extra big dose of hysteria to the main character.
Álvaro Vicente, 2018 Rewind. Abstract of the scene, magazine “Godot”, 2018 12 26.
In the context of the Festival de Otoño (Autumn Festival) we were very excited to see “Lokis” - an ambitious and grandiose work of Lukasz Twarkowski, who is considered to be one of the most important contemporary theater representatives and the enfant terrible of the Polish theater. The result – a three-and-a-half-hour performance that transforms the literary, fictional, and real realities, weaving the dialogue into a variety of other disciplines – meta-theater, live audio-visual, music, performance, and documentary theater... And all of this to unite into one whole, which employs all possible primary means, and which blinds by its potential and superfluity; including the power to lift everything that you see on the stage…
Hugo Álvarez, “Lokis”, or allowing yourself to be blinded by technological excessiveness (or not…), magazine “Butaca en Anfiteatro”
This modern trajectory of reflection is started by Lukasz Twarkowski, whose performance “Lokis” is another proof that contemporary works should be transferred to the stage with the highest possible technological quality that they might need.
Antonio Hernández, “36th Madrid “Festival de Otoño”: the trip to the 21st century”, Magazine “Revista Actores”
Still, the aesthetics of the video clip are not employed to convey the most theatrical scenes, which is good – this way the story isn’t easily forgotten, and is continued through dialogues and phrases provoking the surreal mass. Lokis, the trickster and the clever jester of the Nordic mythology is without a doubt the inspiration for this macabre artefact. The essential thing is that consistent sophistication is not renounced in capturing the confusing and dynamic reality, in which the truth requires our criticism and the ability to synthesize, bearing in mind that the material we are processing is often deceptive. In my opinion, of all the enfant terribles who visited us recently, Łukasz Twarkowski is the only one who deserves this name.
Ángel Esteban Monje, Lokis: a hyperbolized artefact about Marie Trintignant’s murder in the grandiose video and performance art performance
“Lokis”, dir. Łukasz Twarkowski, on May 8, at 6.30 PM., at the Lithuanian National Opera and Ballet Theater.