“Obituaries of Lithuanians: the Story of a Single Play” introduces a group of theater artists attempting to recreate a legendary play and, in doing so, restore a sense of fulfillment to their own lives and to the present state of theater. However, the work is proving difficult – the actors are grappling with issues of love and personal fulfillment, the aging director is chasing his fading glory, and neither on stage nor behind the scenes can moments of success and happiness be captured for more than a second. Neither attempts to recreate them nor to invent them anew help. The hope that eternal happiness is possible in a temporary world gradually imprisons the artists in a theater turning into hell – an eternally transient performance.
Film director and screenwriter Karolis Kaupinis won the 2024 competition for the European Dramaturgical Residency Programme, organized by the Lithuanian National Drama Theater in partnership with the Spanish National Theater in Madrid, the Gorki Theater in Berlin, the Royal Flemish Theater in Brussels, and the Zagreb Youth Theater. His play received many positive reviews at the “Versmė” dramaturgy festival, and the author was invited to stage a production on the Main Stage of the LNDT.
“For me, the most fascinating pursuit in theater is the attempt to touch eternity, because by its very nature, this art form is the most ephemeral. It is the fundamental human desire – to excel one’s transient self. And the transience of everything is my essential feeling right now. I sense that it is not just mine. It seems to me that the fear of extinction (specifically, collective extinction, not just individual death) is what lingers in the subconscious of many of us as the Russian regime constantly repeats its threats that sooner or later, we will face what Ukrainians are experiencing right now. So where, if not in a temporary theater, is it worth talking about that sense of transience?” says director Karolis Kaupinis while talking about the production's relevance.
In the play, he uses a great deal of archival video footage of Lithuanian theater legends.
According to the director, the core idea of the production “Obituaries of Lithuanians: the Story of a Single Play” is that, in these unstable times, the only lasting hope lies in the belief that everything does not end here and now. And the transience of this world is redeemed by the eternity of the other world. “This is a thought that the secular person has already banished from their mind, and that is precisely why they struggle so much with their own transience. Nevertheless, in the present, we inevitably must return to this thought if we are not to lose the meaning of life. So, with this performance, we want to allow the audience to experience a sense of togetherness by bringing them together, to create a sense of hope and meaning in a time when politics fails to provide it,” says Karolis Kaupinis.
The performance features archival footage from LRT, “Lietuvos rytas,” and TV3, Lrytas.lt, the Šiauliai Drama Theater, and Karolis Kaupinis.
Excerpts from the following musical works are featured in the play:
Giedrė – “Tą naktį grojo Tomas Boo,”
a piece by Antanas Jasenka from the play “The Most Excellent and Lamentable Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet,” directed by Oskaras Koršunovas,
Claude VonStroke – “Who’s Afraid of Detroit,”
“The Sweet Enoughs” – “Dream Puppy,”
Eleni Karaindrou – “Ulysses’ Gaze,”
Henry Mancini – “Lujon,”
Linear System – “Sensing Atmospheric [PO001],”
BICEP – “Glue.”
