Kazys Binkis ATŽALYNAS, dir. Jonas VAITKUS

At the center of "Atžalynas" (The Offspring), written by Kazys Binkis in 1938, is a young man accused without cause. Even when scorned, he does not renounce his values, nor does he stop believing in life and other people. It is a spirited, compelling drama, breathing with the optimism and self-sacrifice of interwar Lithuania – values that are so lacking today.

In the words of director Jonas Vaitkus, this work can become a spring rain in today's theatre – which has turned away from fundamental values and is leaning towards destruction and negation. The director invited not only experienced actors to perform in the play, but also students from the acting course at the Lithuanian Academy of Music and Theatre, which he leads himself. "Atžalynas," interpreted by such an enthusiastic creative team, is a great opportunity to rediscover classic Lithuanian dramaturgy.

"While writing this work, I deceived the theatre a little in the sense that the work turned out to be for young people, whose concept of age is very broad – roughly from 12 to 60 years old and older." (Kazys Binkis)

Director Jonas Vaitkus: Today, there is a sense in returning to certain things in which the spirit of values has been preserved. Perhaps from our point of view, it seems simple, overly sincere, primitively sentimental, but behind the words spoken in this work, there is some kind of radiance. I want to return to that purity found in "Atžalynas." But there is also a destructive element in this material. In this play, it is touched upon very slightly, but it shows what the "progress" of progress and anti-progress – technical progress and spiritual anti-progress – is, and that is exactly what we are seeing now. These "scissors" show that those hints of destructiveness have flourished so much now that "Atžalynas" on stage today can be like a spring rain. In this production, I strive for documentary quality, and from the actors – an inner feeling. It is important that they have clear attitudes, a worldview, and the ability to seriously delve into a person – not a complicated, broken, scattered, crushed one who does not understand themselves, living by instincts between money and emotional passions, but a person who has hope, a perspective, who believes that human life is the greatest value. Only then, looking at life – from birth to the last breath – do you begin to realize how late, how far too late people understand all this: they are afraid to live, to feel, and to take responsibility for their lives. As I read the pure "poem" that is "Atžalynas," these things become necessary: both for us and for the people who work on this play.