UNĖ

"Unė" - an event from the "theatre-living history" cycle

September 23, 6:00 pm

A play based on the diaries of the legendary actress Unė Babickaitė-Baye

…

Playwright, director, and performer – BIRUTĖ MAR, set designer – DMITRIJUS MATVEJEVAS, costume designer – JOLANTA RIMKUTĖ, choreographer – EDITA STUNDYTĖ, composer – ANTANAS KUČINSKAS.

Duration: 1 hour 15 minutes.

"Unė" is a play created based on Birutė Mar's own script, which was inspired by the diaries of actress Unė Baye-Babickaitė (1897–1961). The play "Unė" was among the winners of the contemporary Lithuanian drama festival "Versmės 2009". Later, the author also created a play based on this script. The performance uses photographs from the collections of the Lithuanian Theatre, Music and Cinema Museum.

Birutė Mar:

"Unė Babickaitė was one of the most prominent and colorful Lithuanian theatre personalities of the last century, an actress and director who performed in Hollywood films and on the stages of New York, Washington, and Paris.

Her diary, written in Paris between 1930 and 1932, simply begged to be brought to the stage – Unė knew how to look at her surroundings through the eyes of a playwright – with self-irony, passion, and humor. She was a person with an incredibly beautiful soul, quite extravagant – she married her own first cousin Vytautas Graičiūnas, whom she met in America, and remained happy with him her whole life. She especially worshipped and idealized the theatre. Unfortunately, upon returning to Lithuania before the war, Unė was not recognized by Lithuanian critics, and she barely acted anymore. Soon, fate took a sad turn – in 1951, she was deported to Siberia, her husband died in a labor camp, followed by years of loneliness in Kaunas… But Unė remained Unė – she organized evenings, read poetry, and did not lose her sense of humor or inner glow.

I discovered so many parallels with my own life in Unė's biography! Like me, she studied in Saint Petersburg and acted in film and theatre. After returning from her studies – before leaving for America – she directed at the State Theatre in Kaunas (I also staged my diploma play "Happy Days" in Kaunas after my studies in Saint Petersburg). She was also interested in Eastern culture, traveled a lot, and acted in several languages…

I thought that through the character of Unė, one could reflect on one's own theatrical experiences and create a play about THEATRE – its charming and fragile illusion. And about our life, which passes by like a play, a mirage of existence…"