Photo © Dmitrij Matvejev

Saturday, October 4
Daile Theatre, the Big Stage
Brivibas Str. 75
6:00 PM
In Lithuanian (Latvian translation)
Duration: 4h 30 min.
Tickets: 3, 5, 7 Ls

VIDEO WINDOW (1.fragment)
VIDEO WINDOW (2.fragment)

The Beginnings. SEASONS by Kristijonas Donelaitis
Visual poetry

Theatre “Meno Fortas”, Lithuania

Directed by Eimuntas Nekrosius
Set: Marius Nekrosius
Costumes: Nadezda Gultiajeva
Music: Mindaugas Urbaitis
Lights: Audrius Jankauskas
Cast: Zemyna Asmontaite, Povilas Budrys, Diana Gancevskaite, Kestutis Jakstas, Rasa Kulyte, Kristina Mauruseviciute, Ausra Pukelyte, Salvijus Trepulis, Vaidas Vilius

Producers: Meno Fortas, Lithuanian Ministry of Culture
Co-producers: Union des Théatres de l'Europe, Teatro di Roma, Budapest Spring festival, "Baltic House" Festival (St. Petersburg), Teatro Nacional Sao Joao (Porto)

 

Photo © Dmitrij Matvejev

Performance
The peak of the "Homo Novus 2003" program will come at the end of the festival - performance of Lithuanian theatre "Meno Fortas" - "The Beginnings. SEASONS by Kristijonas Donelaitis" at the last weekend. It is staged by the most famous Lithuanian theatre director Eimuntas Nekrosius, whose performances have travelled all over the world. "Seasons" are based on the poetic work by Lithuanian classic Donelaitis about work and life on a farmstead, close ties with the forces of nature and seasonal cycle. On the stage it has been transposed into visual poetry - vibrant scenes of improvisation by the actors and the director follow each other. Watching the performance is a breath-taking experience - the stage language is saturated with metaphors, a simple hand movement or a piece of glass creates the whole atmosphere of a season. All the stage elements, choreography and musical material taken together create a strong emotional and theatrical experience. The new production ends the Shakespeare period, during which three tragedies were successively staged, and marks a new stage in the creative work of the director. Previously Nekrosius used all possible means to stress the human insignificance vis-à-vis passions and fate. Here we see more light, joy and balance. Critic Rasa Paukstyte writes: "Life-work-creation. This is the trinity of Nekrosius performance. For the first time the mark of equation has been put between these concepts, proving that they are unable to exist separately." In 1999 the New Theatre Institute of Latvia was showing Eimuntas Nekrosius' staging of "Hamlet" in an overcrowded hall of the Latvian National Opera. After this performance both Lithuanian director and Latvian audience have been looking forward to meeting again in Riga.

Director
Eimuntas Nekrosius (1952) graduated from the Lunacharski Institute of Theatre Art in Moscow (1978). From 1978 to 1979 he worked at the State Youth Theatre in Vilnius, from 1979 to 1980 - at Kaunas Drama Theatre. Since 1980 he resumed work at the State Youth Theatre in Vilnius, where he produced the following performances: The Square by Yeliseyeva (1981), Love and Death in Verona by Antanelis and Geda (1982), Pirosmani, Pirosmani, A Day Longer Than a Hundred Years by Aitmatov (1983), Uncle Vanya by Chekhov (1986) and The Nose by Gogol (1991). All productions by Nekrosius were awarded diplomas of various theatre festivals in Lithuania and the Baltic States. They have successfully participated in many international theatre festivals. Nekrosius is a winner of numerous state awards in the field of arts. Since 1991 Nekrosius worked as a resident director of the Lithuanian International Theatre Festival LIFE. His performances produced by LIFE festival include Mozart and Salieri. Don Juan. Plague by Pushkin (1994) and Three Sisters by Chekhov (1995), Love and Death in Verona (1996). All of them participated in many international theatre festivals. In 1994 Nekrosius received a special prize of Lithuanian Theatre Union as the Best Director of the Year, and an award of the Baltic Assembly for Mozart and Salieri. Don Juan. Plague as the best theatre performance in the Baltics. In the same year the European Theatre Union and Taormina Arts Committee (Italy) awarded Eimuntas Nekrosius a prize of the New European Theatre Realities. In 1997 Nekrosius created one of his most successful productions - Hamlet by Shakespeare that took part in nearly all main European theatre festivals and received numerous awards. In 1998 Nekrosius was decorated with the Order of Gediminas of the 3rd degree, and in 1998 he received the National Award of Lithuania. Since 1998 Nekrosius works as an artistic director of the theatre studio "Meno Fortas" established in 1998. In 1999 he produced Macbeth by Shakespeare. In 1999 his performance received the Golden Mask award by Russian theatre critics. In 2001 Nekrosius produced Othello by Shakespeare. The world premiere took place on March 2nd, 3rd and 4th 2001 in Venice. Othello was awarded as the best performance at the Sarayevo Mess festival in 2001, and Eimuntas Nekrosius received the prize of the best director of the festival. In 2001 Nekrosius received the prestigious K.S.Stanislavsky award in Moscow. In November 2002 Nekrosius produced Verdi's opera Macbeth at Teatro Comunale (Florence Opera). The premiere of the newest performance by Nekrosius The Beginnings. SEASONS by Kristijonas Donelaitis based on the epic poem by the classic of Lithuanian literature, took place on March 7, 2003 at the National Theatre in Vilnius.

Links
Homepage of "Meno Fortas" www.menofortas.lt

Press reviews

"Searching for light is materialised by an absurd, though absolutely organic..."

"These motivations of the awakening love, attraction and doubts, the heat of feelings and frost - are conveyed with such subtlety and beauty that one does not easily find in the psychological theatre. The musical element penetrates all episodes and connects them into a single action and intonation plot. The composer Mindaugas Urbaitis combines the classical motifs with city folklore and popular melodic patterns. The young actors perform complicated rhythmical and vocal tasks with youthful enthusiasm and do not lack the universality of experienced professionals."


Photo © Dmitrij Matvejev

Aleksandra Tuchinskaya, Russkij zumal, 2002 No. 10

 

"In "The Seasons", the dark hallucinating humour of "The Three Sisters" has returned after the ruthless tragedies of "Macbeth" and "Othello"."

"Nekrosius is a kamikaze. He has warned us that he was becoming bored with the classics. (...) He got bored of doing everything clean; the director in whom the majority sees the future of European theatre, declared: I must go astray. "I have reached a certain limit, when I must risk by working with a text that nobody else would take". The weapon, with which Nekrosius rehearses a professional suicide, is a mysterious text, which has to be redeemed (? work that gave birth to Lithuanian written literature), and which, in his own words, is a chaos, removed too far to the east from the Western audience to produce the chemistry of understanding possible in the case of classics."

Ines Nadais, Publico, 10.01.2003.

 

"Though rather long, the performance is surprisingly impetuous and youthful, full of good humour and bright elegy. After Nekrosius' monumental productions of Shakespeare's plays, it looks like an attempt to return to the beginning, at the same time realising that it is impossible to make this return."

Audronis Liuga, 7 meno dienos, 14.03.2003.

 

" "The Beginnings..." is probably the first performance by Nekrosius in which he makes jokes. It is a funny Nekrosius. We have not once encountered him as sarcastic and ironic, but never has he been funny and carefree. For the first time in his performance the audience can have a hearty laugh."

Rasa Paukstyte, Verslo zinios, March 14, 2003

 

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