Starting point '26: into the night

September 29 (Tuesday) 18:00 I 1 hour LMTA I dir. Aleksandr Špilevoj I N-13 Kaunas City Chamber Theatre, Main Hall Ticket price optional 3, 5 or 10 Eur "Into the Night" is a play about a society that is beginning to hate more and more – its loved ones, neighbors, those who think and see the world differently. It is a play about a time when propaganda becomes everyday life and cruelty becomes the norm. Today, when war is raging in Europe again, when democracies are flirting more and more aggressively with radicalism, and social networks spread hatred faster than compassion, Ingmar Villqist's play sounds not like a dystopia, but like a documentary from tomorrow.

The characters of the play are a young woman, Karla, and a young man with a developmental disorder named Helver, whom she has taken into her home. They are dependent on each other, live in a small apartment, and try not to break down in a country where xenophobia, militarism, and antisemitism are taking hold. However, Karla fails to protect Helver from the prevailing ideology, so he is already possessed by the rhythms of street fighters, the aesthetics of uniforms, the feeling of the power of the crowd, and the illusion of belonging to the "strong."

He returns home intoxicated by collective rage – like a child who feels for the first time that he finally belongs to something. But it soon becomes clear that totalitarianism does not begin with tanks and dictators, but with loneliness, fear, and an unjustified human need to be accepted. Karla tries with all her might to save Helver from a world going mad, from the crowd, from himself. But the harder she tries to protect him, the clearer it becomes that aggression and violence have already moved into their own home, their bodies, their language, and their relationship. Love turns into control, care into fear, and tenderness begins to resemble a final resistance against the approaching catastrophe. Director: Aleksandr Špilevoj Set designers: Haroldas Kuliešius, Justas Sabastijanskas Costume designer: Ieva Vaičiulytė Composer: Kotryna Jančauskaitė Cast: Simonas Goptaitis, Gabrielė Baubaitė