THE BLUE BIRD

A two-act play 7+

Didžioji scena

Author: Maurice Maeterlinck

Director: Vaidotas Martinaitis

Set designer: Artūras Šimonis

Composer: Antanas Jasenka

Costume designer: Aleksandra Jacovskytė

Video artist: Vladimiras Šerstabojevas

Actors: Saulius Čiučelis, Giedrė Žaliauskaitė, Goda Petkutė, Vilija Grigaitytė, Gintautas Bejeris, Martyna Gedvilaitė, Inga Mikutavičiūtė, Daiva Rudokaitė, Liucija Rukšnaitytė, Artūras Sužiedėlis, Aušra Keliuotytė, Ričardas Vitkaitis, Arnas Ašmonas, Eugenija Bendoriūtė, Ugnė Žirgulė, Ridas Žirgulis, Nijolė Ona Lepeškaitė, Algirdas Pintukas, Audronė Paškonytė, Tomas Erbrėderis, Mindaugas Jankauskas, Gytis Laskovas, Dainius Svobonas, Arūnas Stanionis

Duration – 2 h (with intermission)

The play The Blue Bird by National Kaunas Drama Theatre recreates the Nobel Prize Laureate Maeterlinck’s allegoric tale about two children who are charged with the task of finding and catching the Blue Bird on a dark Christmas night. The children set out on an adventurous and magical journey to fantastic worlds, palaces, and gardens. However, the resolution and courage to cover long distances, encounter the powers of Light and Shade, and Good and Evil, are not sufficient to find the Blue Bird: recognizing it requires a simple yet miraculous capability – being able to see the invisible.

Two siblings, a boy called Tyltyl and his sister Mytyl, are given a magical diamond, turning which enables them to see the inherent personalities or the essence of objects and phenomena. The siblings can now see those simple things like Bread, Water, Sugar, and Fire have souls of their own, which helps distinguish and perceive true values. This fantastic story reminds us that traces of happiness may only be detected with our eyes and hearts wide open, and with an innocent glance of a child. We do not have to seek happiness far across the seas, for the Blue Bird is flying everywhere, leaving its magical feather in every home. The Bird may just have visited the Land of Memories, home to the ones who passed away, but are still alive because we cherish the memories of them. It may have just perched on a sumptuous palace of Night or has flown over the magic garden, where Bliss of Maternal Love, Bliss of Thinking, and Bliss of Understanding reign; it may have just left the Land of the Future, having touched our dreams… Maybe one does not have to possess the magical gem in order to be able to see the real face of the world, because, in the words of Maurice Maeterlinck, all stones are equally precious, it is just that people do not see the value of them all? This fantastic story invites us to open our eyes widely, to take a close look at the world and our souls, and to achieve a blissful understanding that “we are only worth the happiness that we are capable of perceiving” (Maurice Maeterlinck).