Director: Augustas Gornatkevičius

Set designer: Simona Davlidovičiūtė

Dramaturgy: Domas Raibys

Projection designer: Kristijonas Dirsė

Composer: Marija Paškevičiūtė

Movement director: Gintarė Šmigelskytė

Actors: Mantas Bendžius, Saulė Sakalauskaitė, Marius Karolis Gotbergas, Pijus Narijauskas, Goda Petkutė, Greta Šepliakovaitė

The performance for teenagers “Schooler” was inspired by the 1985 American cult film “The Breakfast Club”. Director Augustas Gornatkevičius, the creative team, and the National Kaunas Drama Theatre’s young actors created an original version where five teenagers try to find answers to their questions. Who am I? What is the meaning of life? Usually, it is hard even for adults to find the answers. Teenagers have more time and willingness to dig deeper; however, this desire is often suppressed – “you’ll grow up and see”, “stay in your shoes”, “be the person we want to see you as”. The performance delves into the world of adolescents and attempts to challenge prevailing stereotypes. The media and society often portray teenagers in a biased way, imposing stereotypes or behavioural patterns on them: geek, beauty, athlete, artist, etc. “Who I truly am?” the characters of the performance ask – five teenagers trapped in the school’s basement – trying to free themselves from the pressure of parents, teachers and society and to throw off the masks that have been put on them.

School – purgatory – rules… Is it a place where we learn, a place where our sinful souls are purged, a place where you have to follow certain rules and where you will be prepared for life? The school’s basement becomes a surreal place where dreams, authorities, characters from childhood tales and read books wander all around.

Based on the book, this classroom performance explores a mother’s alcoholism through the 

fantasies of a little girl, avoiding the factual reality. As we move through the child’s story, 

more important is her abandonment and the imaginary world into which she transposes her 

everyday problems. This is how it happens that in the story there are genies (in Hungarian, 

it’s a homonym with ’gin’, the alcohol) who abduct the mother in the evenings. 

Káva Drama Theatre in Education Association (founded in 1996) creates complex Theater in Education and Drama in Education programs for students of public education, from age 6 to 18. The repertoire addresses both current social issues and more general philosophical and ethical questions. Our work is about raising questions, consciously not attempting to answer them. Beyond aesthetic education, the examination of democratic citizenship, micro- and macro-social, moral problems through theatrical forms also belong to our function. In our work with children and youngsters theatre is a tool to discover a road to understand a certain human problematic on a deeper level. 

Duration 90 min.  

Recommended age: 12 years old and up.  

Author: Darryl Pinckney

Director stage and lighting designer: Robert Wilson

Co-director: Anna-Christine Rommen

Author of music and songs: Christian Friedel

Associate set designer: Stephanie Engeln

Costume designer: Jacques Reynaud

Associate Lighting: Marcello Lumaca

Hair and Makeup Design: Manu Halligan

Video artist: Tomek Jeziorski

Assistant of the costume designer: Birutė Jašinskaitė

Assistant of the Associate Ligtning: Džiugas Vakrinas

Assistant director: Aivaras Micius

Stage managers: Edita Laurinaitienė, Asta Mačiulytė

Actors: Dainius Svobonas, Mantas Zemleckas

Duration: 1.30 hours

Dorian is a premiere by world-recognised director Robert Wilson in the National Kaunas Drama Theatre; it has been created together with the D’haus Theatre (Düsseldorfer Schauspielhaus) in Germany, Düsseldorf. Robert Wilson is one of the most significant theatre creators of our times, who has changed the audience’s comprehension of the process taking place on the stage. His creations combine elements from dance, performance, architecture, painting, music, and drama.

The storytelling of the performance is combined of motifs from the lives of Oscar Wilde, his character Dorian Grey, and English painter Francis Bacon. All of them valued beauty, youth, and life pleasures, sought external perfection and led egocentric lives. Oscar Wilde was beloved by London society until he was sent to jail for an ‘indecent relationship’ with his lover Alfred Douglas. Francis Bacon suggested for the burglar, who broke into his studio, George Dyer, to become a model instead of calling the police. The beautiful Dorian Grey dreamed that his portrait would get old instead of him and he himself would stay forever young and dashing. These three more or less made-up stories tell us about the link between life and art. American writer Darryl Pinckney connected them into associative threads of narrative in which memories, experiences, thoughts, and feelings are intertwined. The direction, movement architecture, and light magic of Robert Wilson create a perfect view engulfing with its precision and mastery.

Performance is part of the Kaunas – European Capital of Culture 2022 programme.

Director – Aleksandras Špilevojus

Playwright – Daiva Čepauskaitė

Set and costume designer – Ugnė Tamoliūnaitė

Actors: Vilija Grigaitytė, Liubomiras Laucevičius, Jūratė Onaitytė, Inesa Paliulytė, Audronė Paškonytė, Algirdas Pintukas, Liucija Rukšnaitytė, Lili Stepankaitė.

Everyone tries to delay it, avoid it, or outrun it. Some people ignore it, while others try to overcome it with the latest scientific innovations, and still, others mock it. No one eagerly awaits it, but it inexorably arrives. It often catches us unprepared because, throughout our lives, we assume it is distant, that it belongs to others, and that it will somehow miraculously bypass us. Yet, it comes and lingers, transforming us into individuals who find themselves undeservedly on the fringes of society. It is the merciless old age.

Premiering at the National Kaunas Drama Theatre and directed by Aleksandras Špilevojus, this story centres around the often forgotten, undervalued, mocked and discriminated against group of elderly people. It delves into the lives of those whose experiences are priceless treasures, individuals who carry more memories than future plans. This narrative prompts reflection on our present and our elderly future. As the French philosopher Simone de Beauvoir once said, “If we do not know who we will become, we cannot know who we are now.” To prevent old age from becoming a frightening and shameful taboo, it is essential that we engage in open conversations about it.

A colourful group of seniors gathers for the funeral of their old friend. They have much to catch up on, much to discuss, yet very little time. This comedic performance brims with humour, memories of youth and talented actors from the older generation.

Director : Hilde Brinchmann

Set designer: Signe Gerda Landfald

Costume designer : Helena Anderson

Composer: Deividas Gnedinas

Lighting artist: Vladimiras Šerstabojevas

Actors: Saulė Sakalauskaitė, Ugnė Žirgulė, Andrius Alešiūnas, Kamilė Lebedytė, Artūras Sužiedėlis, Goda Petkutė, Marius Karolis Gotbergas, Greta Šepliakovaitė, Arnas Ašmonas

Duration 1 hour 30 min.

THE PAST

Once upon a time, all the people of the world were one. One Nation. One People.

With One Language and One God.

One day the leaders of the people decided to build a magnificent tower. A tower was so high and beautiful that they could reach God in the skies. But God saw what they were building and decided that it was not good. The people of the world should not think that they were like God.

So God divided them.

He gave them different languages so that they could no longer understand each other. He made them afraid of each other so they started wars against each other. And so the people of the world abandoned the big common project of Babel and built nations for themselves. They were confused and afraid. And in the far future, the people of the Planet Earth destroyed even their own Planet.

THE FUTURE

The world after the climate catastrophe. Only a few small tribes of people remain, scattered around the world. Each tribe has its own language and customs. They live like animals, foraging for food and trying to survive in a world destroyed by the apocalypse. What will happen if these tribes meet?

This is a story of the past, the present, and the future.

What may come and what may happen?

Will the human race once more be able to gather around a common project? Or are we forever doomed to live and fight amongst each other?

The Game of Tower of Babel will begin.

Come. Join us.

Author: Vydūnas

Director: Jonas Vaitkus

Set and costume designer: Jonas Arčikauskas

Composer: Tomas Kutavičius

Choreographer: Lina Puodžiukaitė

Video artist: Ridas Beržauskas

Video artist: Vladimiras Šerstabojevas

Assistant director: Rokas Misikonis

Actors: Liubomiras Laucevičius, Jūratė Onaitytė, Motiejus Ivanauskas, Vaidas Maršalka, Inga Mikutavičiūtė, Greta Šepliakovaitė, (Iveta Raulinaitytė ), Henrikas Savickis, (Justin Burškaitytė), Daiva Rudokaitė, Audronė Paškonytė, Sigitas Šidlauskas, Gintautas Bejeris, Martyna Gedvilaitė, Andrius Alešiūnas,  Saulius Čiučelis, Dovydas Pabarčius, Kęstutis Povilaitis, Kamilė Lebedytė, Marius Karolis Gotbergas, Saulė Sakalauskaitė

Duration – 2:10 h

The Self Forgotten is more than a performance. It is a performance mission that spreads the fundamental ideas of the Lithuanian humanist, philosopher, and writer Vydūnas. To educate a nation of conscious and free people, its spiritual culture-science, art, and morality – that was the main goal of the great thinker. Director Jonas Vaitkus considers Vydūnas’ personality to be one of the guiding principles in nowadays’ devaluation of moral values ​​and invites the theatre community to march in the direction of love, compassion, conscience, and virtue. Let us become human beings for ourselves – essentially, but not superficially, free people, let us not worship the golden calf, but strive for higher and more perfect humanity. Let us be people in the nation – let us love our homeland, let us work sincerely for it, and be worthy of respect. Let us be human beings in the universe – let us see the world through the nation and contribute to the good of the world. Composer Tomas Kutavičius and scenographer Jonas Arčikauskas turn Vydūnas’ philosophical thought into an impressive mystery – a musical spectacle that combines the shadows of the nation’s history, the echoes of natural elements, and the desire for human improvement.

“I hope that people look at you. That they look at you and are confused about what you’re doing. They don't know if I've said anything to you or not. You may just be going around in circles because you have nothing else to do.” The Crowd explores how we navigate our positions in crowds. You’ll hear texts from different people about the loneliness and the joy they experience while being part of different groups of people; on a bus, at the beach, at a concert, at the cinema. Who are you when you're on the outside of the group, and who are you as an individual when you're just a tiny part of a big group? While listening, together the audience becomes a crowd. This performance gives the audience possibilities they rarely get to experience in the theatre. The audience gets headphones they will wear throughout the performance and there will not be any seating. Maybe “The Crowd” can be compared to the theatre's version of silent disco? The project is created by Teater Leikhus’ Eva Rosemarijn and Lise Andrea, who have written and directed the piece together. Over 20 voice actors have helped with the project by lending us their voice, Irene Nessa Bjørnevik has been in charge of scenography and Eva Rosemarijn has created original music for the piece. The project has been developed over the course of two years with support from “Dramatikkens hus” and dramaturg Morten Cranner. 

“The Crowd” is an audiovisual experience about the loneliness and the joy we experience while being part of different kinds of crowds. Come experience being part of this crowd in a performance that could be described as the theatre’s version of silent disco! 

Running time: 80 min.  

Recommended age: 12 years and up.  

Author: Ivan Vyrypaev

Director, set and costume designer: Nino Maglakelidze

Video artist: Ridas Beržauskas

Actors: Dainius Svobonas (Robert), Goda Petkutė (Sara), Sigitas Šidlauskas (Donald)

Duration – 2 hours

Translation from the Russian language by Artiomas Rybakovas

From the first glance, the storyline of ‘Summer Wasps Bite Us Even in November’ reminds us of a detective: a man, his wife, and their family friend are trying to find out where their friend Marcus was on Monday’s evening. Each of them claims that he’s been with them. They even have clear evidence and witnesses. They try to convince others that the truth is on their side. All of them sound very believable but Marcus could not have been at a few places at the same time. So, where was he really at? The innocent discussion is slowly turning into a strange game, provoking open confessions, and exposing wounds. The storyline is shifting towards absurdity. It goes over the limits of a love triangle or family drama and finally becomes irrelevant. Here, something else matters more – the world in which each of us attempts to force our views on others. As in many other plays of the Russian playwright Ivan Vyrypaev, here the action takes place in one room with the door to outer space. In this space, eternal questions and current relevant issues are floating – but on which side lies the truth? Or maybe it can be on more than one side? Can we accept other people without trying to re-educate and change them? Without forcing them to perceive the world as we do? How can we communicate in today’s divided world? How can we live when it is impossible to do so?

Director: Augustas Gornatkevičius

Movement director: Gintarė Šmigelskytė

Set and costume designer: Simona Davlidovičiūtė

Composer: Mantvydas Leonas Pranulis

Playwright: Daiva Čepauskaitė

Actors: Greta Šepliakovaitė, Andrius Alešiūnas, Marius Karolis Gotbergas, Povilas Jatkevičius, Dovydas Pabarčius

The creation of the performance was inspired by the famous Emil from Astrid Lindgren’s book Emil of Lönneberga. He’s constantly playing pranks and carving funny wooden people while sitting in a woodshed as a punishment. However, all of us have played pranks and made mistakes in our childhood, right? Troublemakers and adventure seekers can be found in each yard, street or classroom. Sometimes they grow to become city mayors or even presidents. Director Augustas Gornatkevičius and the actors of the National Kaunas Drama Theatre have created a performance based on their childhood adventures and their mistakes that teach us how to live and evoke our creativity. Emil of Emils is speeding on roller-skates and inviting to adventures as well as to rejoice, to try and discover new things, and to do parkour.

A performance for 8-12-year-old children

Duration – 1:30

The Long Hall

Director Artūras Areima

Costume designer Valdemara Jasulaityte

Set designer Oles Makukhin

Composer Mantvydas Leonas Pranulis

Video artist Kristijonas Dirsė

Director  – Ivan Uryvskyi (Ukraina)

Set designer  – Petro Bogomazov (Ukraina)

Costume designer  – Tetiana Ovsiichuk (Ukraina)

Actors: Saulius Čiučelis, Martyna Gedvilaitė, Vaidas Maršalka, Audronė Paškonytė, Kęstutis Povilaitis, Agnieška Ravdo

The Earth is a unique opportunity to get acquainted with the classic literature of Ukraine and their modern interpretation in the theatre. A team of Ukrainian artists from Kiev presents a production of the novel by Olha Kobylianska (1863-1942) at the National Kaunas Drama Theatre. The play tells an intriguing story about family, their love and betrayal, war and death, parent-child relations and other eternal human themes are intertwined in a play. The novel is based on a true tragedy in the village of Dymtsi - a brother kills his elder brother in order to inherit his parents' land. Although The Earth is set in a Ukrainian village in the 19th and 20th centuries, the biblical story of the first crime of mankind - fratricide - is universal at all times and in all parts of the world. The earth nourishes man, sustains life, provides a home, determines the characters' place in the community and their perception of the world. The earth is a force that dictates man's will, it punishes and educates and destroys. The earth is the element that kills and is still being killed for today. The earth is the main character who determines the fate of us all.

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).

Director: Agnius Jankevičius

Set designer: Laura Luišaitytė

Actors: Goda Piktytė,  Vaidas Maršalka, Gabrielė Ladygaitė, Daiva Rudokaitė , Gytis Laskovas, Inga Mikutavičiūtė

Duration – 2 hours 45 minutes (with intermission)

It is a story of passion, manipulation, hypocrisy, and devastating relationships of true love, a story about moral decline and fornication. The two aristocrats Marquis de Merteuil and Vicomte de Valmont begin a sophisticated game of seduction and manipulation to enliven their boring existence. Innocent people become the tools of their game. In order to avenge her lover who betrayed her, Marquis de Merteuil incites Vicomte de Valmont to seduce his fiancée. However, for Valmont, a professional Casanova, a young and innocent girl is the easiest task. His target Dora is a religious married woman. To conquer such a fortress is a challenge for any experienced womanizer. They are like a pair of gamers, who ignore their feelings and only focus on their own rules of the game, which turns the surrounding people into useful or unnecessary cards. When the intrigues of cynics entwine, and the reaction of victims brings unexpected results, it becomes evident that the endgame will be much serious and brutal than anticipated.

Rūta’s Hall. Age limit 16+

A collaborative project with “Mens publica”

More iformation: https://dramosteatras.lt/en/spektaklis/dangerous-liaisons/

SNOW WHITE (18+)

Director, playwright, set and costume designer – Gintarė Minelgaitė-Duchin (Dr. GoraParasit)

Composer – Sandra Kazlauskaitė

Lighting artist – Paulius Varonenka

Choreographer – Ema Senkuvienė

Cameraman – Edgaras Jocius

Camera and editing assistant – Laura Pociūtė

In Snow White, director Dr. GoraParasit presents a powerful and healing interpretation of the Brothers Grimm’s fairy tale set against the backdrop of glacial mythology.

BDSM aesthetics allow us to question human nature while simultaneously highlighting the everyday myopia of society, our naivety, and social prejudices. Dr. GoraParasit’s performance explores a range of themes, including glacial ecology, the climate crisis, multilingualism, migration, hate, and social-gender dynamics. It also invites us to contemplate broader existential questions of the present and the future. By seamlessly combining different media – such as twerk dancing, video game logic, soundscapes by composer Sandra Kazlauskaitė, and club music – the director exposes her own psychological vulnerabilities and those of contemporary society.

With this production, Dr. GoraParasit invites the audience on a journey through the melting glaciers, using green screen techniques to prompt a transformative experience. We are encouraged to reflect upon ourselves through a magic mirror that unveils the reality of a world in the process of melting.

And the heat is bound to intensify from here on...

The performance is for adults.

Opening performances on 1, 2 and 3 December 2023 at the Main Stage

Author: Mika Myllyaho

Director: Kamilė Gudmonaitė

Set and costume designer: Barbora Šulniūtė

Video artists: Ridas Beržauskas, Barbora Šulniūtė, Jonas Litvinas

Actors: Mantas Zemleckas (Max), Vaidas Maršalka (Johnny), Gytis Laskovas (Leo)

Duration  –  2 hours 15 minutes (with intermission)

The play Panic directed by Kamilė Gudmonaitė, based on the dramatical piece Panic by Mika Myllyaho, a contemporary Finnish playwright. The play invites the spectators to step into a provocative and realistic urban universe where contemporary men go through real and imaginary crises. This intelligent and incisive comedy tells the story of three friends who are trying to cope with their lives.

Following eastern practices and adhering to psychotherapy principles, the men embark on an absurd, comical, and intense journey of self-cognition, revealing the problematics of masculinity as a social stamp. What are the challenges faced by men today? What do society and family expect of them? What are the requirements imposed on them by this era? What neuroses lurk behind the exterior of a cool and domineering breadwinner? Director Kamilė Gudmonaitė challenges the “normalcy” stereotypes produced by society and presents a slightly absurd comedy, which nonetheless discloses considerable tensions of contemporary social life.

Opening – December 18, 19, and 20, 2019

Rūta’s Hall.  Age limit: 18+

The play translation was sponsored by TINFO (Theatre Info Finland)

Text copyright belongs to NORDIC DRAMA CORNER OY

Attention! During the performance, uncensored speech, imagery, and certain smells are used.

The play is sponsored by The Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Lithuania

Author: Joshua Sobol

Director: Gintaras Varnas

Set designer: Gintaras Makarevičius

Composer: Anatolijus Šenderovas

Costume designer: Aleksandra Jacovskytė

Video artist: Kornelijus Jaroševičius

Lighting artist: Vladimiras Šerstabojevas

Playwrights: Daiva Čepauskaitė ir Gintaras Varnas

Actors: Sigitas Šidlauskas, Dainius Svobonas, Mantas Zemleckas, Jovita Jankelaitytė, Liubomiras Laucevičius, Gytis Ivanauskas, Ričardas Vitkaitis, Vaidas Maršalka, Saulius Čiučelis, Tomas Erbrėderis, Gintautas Bejeris, Albinas Budnikas,  Martyna Gedvilaitė, Arnas Ašmonas, Gytis Laskovas, Karolina Elžbieta Mikolajūnaitė, Deividas Rajunčius, Pijus Narijauskas, Liucija Rukšnaitytė, Audronė Paškonytė, Dominyka Budinavičiūtė, Skaistė Grašytė, Mindaugas Gargasas, Rokas Lažaunykas, Boy with violin:. Jurgis Bajoras ir Jonas Venckūnas, Musicians: Darius Krapikas, Asta Markevičienė, Ugnė Petrauskaitė, Laimonas Salijus, Gintarė Kaminskaitė, Tadas Vilčinskas

Duration – 3 hours 50 minutes (with intermission)

The performance is showed with ENGLISH SURTITLES all the time.

World War II. Nazi-occupied Lithuania has become a death trap for Jews. Men, women, and children are imprisoned in ghettos and the only way out leads to a pit in the ground. “Ghetto” is a story of how people imprisoned in the Vilna Ghetto came up with a unique idea – establishing a ghetto theater, which even in the face of death became their beacon of inner strength and resistance against the Nazi. This is a drama about their collective fight for physical and spiritual survival, even when they knew that the enemy was a hundred times stronger. “Ghetto” also tells the story of those who were holding the guns and trading shoes of their victims among themselves. Never before had Lithuania seen so many pits in the ground and so many spare shoes as in 1941.

Director: Eglė Kižaitė

Stage adaptation director: Daiva Čepauskaitė

Set and costume designer: Justė Kondratė

Music and sound designer: Edgaras Žemaitis

Actors: Martyna Gedvilaitė, Pijus Narijauskas, Audronė Paškonytė, Sigitas Šidlauskas

Based on the fairy tale Happiness is a Fox by Evelina Daciūtė

Duration – 1 hour

The relationship between the Boy and the Fox started a long time ago when Antoine de Saint-Exupéry was a pilot. People say that they are still friends. Could it be another boy and another fox? It could be, but that is not the most important. A friendship that starts with a bun given as a present and never ends is the most important. To swing together on a park swing, listen to strange stories, enjoy the view of the Smoked Salmon Constellation and be a part of the Generosity Ocean is the most important. The Boy Povilas and his parents moved from the book Happiness is a Fox by Evelina Daciūtė to the National Kaunas Drama Theatre. He tells young spectators a cosy and light orange story of his childhood. Once upon a time, Povilas went out to buy some buns and took an unknown path in the park. Behind the turn, a breathtaking flight on the swing and long-tailed, fluffy happiness were waiting for him.