THE SHOEMAKERS

Two-act play (Age limit 16+)

Rūtos salė

Thursday, June 6th, 2024

Author: Stanisław Ignacy Witkiewicz-Witkacy

Director: Antanas Obcarskas

Playwright: Laurynas Adomaitis

Set designer: Lauryna Liepaitė

Costume designer: Juozas Valenta

Composer: Rolandas Venckys

Video artist: Saulė Bliuvaitė

Director assistant: Deivydas Valenta

Actors: Gytis Ivanauskas, Saulius Čiučelis, Deividas Breivė, Mantas Bendžius, Augustė Šimulynaitė, Aistė Zabotkaitė, Saulė Sakalauskaitė

Duration – 2 hours 50 minutes (with intermission)

The production is a co-production of the NKDT (National Kaunas Drama Theatre) and Utopia Theatre. The production is also realized together with the Polish Cultural Institute in Vilnius and the Adam Mickiewicz Foundation. The performance is a part of International Theatre festival "Stage 10x10"

The Shoemakers, although left unfinished due to the author’s suicide, is considered the best Witkacy’s work for the theatre. The last decade of Witkacy’s life and work (1930–1939), coinciding with a difficult period for the whole of Europe as well, was full of pessimism and anxiety. The artist saw the waking demons of totalitarianism and feared for a bleak future – the play The Shoemakers perfectly discloses the atmosphere of that time.

The Shoemakers is a kind of play of visions, which draws predictions about the future of literature, art, politics, society, and the human condition. Paradoxically, Witkacy’s visions are surprisingly accurate in relation to today’s reality, testifying to the author’s astounding ability to diagnose very broadly the diseases of his time and the evils of the future. The play exhibits three social classes (bourgeois-capitalists, working-class, and aristocrats) and their flaws through the composition of three acts and the characters assigned to a particular class. Every act ends with a revolution that reverses the power relationship. The central theme of the play’s plot is the changes in social situations, roles, and individual personal status before and after the revolutions. Will those who were oppressed and now in power change anything after the revolution? On the other hand, maybe they will also suffer from the moral sickness of their oppressors? A closer look at Witkacy naturally raises a question: what kind of revolution awaits us?

The creation of the performance is partially supported by the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Lithuania and LTKT (the Culture Council).