Teklė Kavtaradzė. THE SILENCE OF THE SIRENS, dir. Laura KUTKAITĖ

Director — Laura KUTKAITĖ

Dramaturgs — Teklė KAVTARADZE and Laura Kutkaitė together with the actresses

Set and costume designer — Paulina TURAUSKAITĖ

Composer — Agnė MATULEVIČIŪTĖ

Choreographer — Laura KUTKAITĖ

Choreography consultant — Agnietė LISIČKINAITĖ

Lighting designer — Vilius VILUTIS

Assistant director — Urtė SĖJŪNAITĖ

Assistant dramaturgs — Simona JURKUVĖNAITĖ and Eglė POŠKEVIČIŪTĖ

Assistant director — Augustas GORNATKEVIČIUS

Producer — Rugilė PUKŠTYTĖ

CAST

Gerda ČIURAITĖ, Rimantė VALIUKAITĖ, Toma VAŠKEVIČIŪTĖ, Aistė ZABOTKAITĖ, Jūratė VILŪNAITĖ

◊ 2022 Main Prize at the international festival for young directors "Fast Forward" in Dresden

Sirens sing beautifully, writes Homer. They lurk on an island, luring passing men and destroying them. Except for Orpheus, who sings louder, and Odysseus, whose companions put wax in their ears and tie him to the mast so he can listen to the sirens and not die. European mythology is dominated by violence: between humans, gods, mythical creatures, and genders. Inequality and power imbalances give birth to strategies of fear and defense, rather than relationships. What forces us to adhere to these structures? Collaborating with colleagues, director Laura Kutkaitė moves a contemporary story directly into the middle of a mythical minefield: four years after the peak of the #MeToo movement in Lithuania, she presents the problem of abuse of power in the art world on stage. Posing on a rock and waiting for the "great Odysseus," four actresses open their island theater and tell true stories from their own and other Lithuanian female artists' creative processes. They do not skip a single dark detail – not even mutual competition – and perform theater together: with costumes and makeup, with sound and light, with bitter humor, passion, vulnerability, and for a multitude of reasons. Thus, they tragically and comically strike at the structures precisely where they could change.

"I miss women's roles, I miss raw female power in theater, and most of all I miss their voices; that is why the play is primarily about the woman's voice, its creative and at the same time destructive power," says the director of the play "The Silence of the Sirens," Laura Kutkaitė.