LNDT

Set and costume designer — Paulė BOCULLAITĖ

Video projection authors — Simonas GLINSKIS, Ričard ŽIGIS

Lighting designer — Julius KURŠYS

Assistant director — Kotryna SIAURUSAITYTĖ

Assistant director — Deivydas VALENTA

Producer — Rugilė PUKŠTYTĖ

Producer — Žiedūnė DUBNIKOVAITĖ

CAST:

Vaidotas MARTINAITIS, Juozas BUDRAITIS, Marius ČIŽAUSKAS, Dainius GAVENONIS, Šarūnas Rapolas MELIEŠIUS,

Rasa SAMUOLYTĖ, Nelė SAVIČENKO, Vaidilė JUOZAITYTĖ, Aistė ZABOTKAITĖ, Daiva STUBRAITĖ

"Lithuanian Death Notices. The Story of One Play" presents a group of theatre creators attempting to recreate a legendary play, thereby restoring wholeness to their own present and that of the theatre. However, the work is difficult – the actors grapple with questions of love and personal fulfillment, the aging director chases his fading glory, and neither on stage nor backstage do they manage to capture moments of success and happiness for longer than a second. Neither attempts to recreate them nor to create them anew help. The hope that it is possible to achieve eternal happiness in a temporary world gradually traps the creators in a theatre that is turning into a hell – an eternally temporary play.

Film director and screenwriter Karolis Kaupinis won the 2024 European Playwright Residency Program competition organized by the Lithuanian National Drama Theatre in partnership with the Spanish National Theatre in Madrid, the Gorky Theatre in Berlin, the Royal Flemish Theatre in Brussels, and the Zagreb Youth Theatre. His play received much favorable feedback at the "Versmė" dramaturgy festival, and the author received an invitation to create a play for the LNDT Main Stage.

"The most interesting endeavor in theatre for me is the attempt to touch eternity, because by its nature, this branch of art is the most ephemeral. This is the fundamental human desire – to transcend one's temporary self. And the transience of everything is my essential feeling right now. I suspect it is not just mine. It seems to me that the fear of extinction (specifically collective extinction, not just individual death) is what hangs in the subconscious of many of us as the Russian regime constantly repeats its threats that sooner or later we will experience what Ukrainians are experiencing now. So where, if not in the temporary theatre, is it worth talking about that feeling of transience," says director Karolis Kaupinis about the relevance of the work.