VMT Premiere

Playwright – Caryl Churchill

Director – Artūras Areima

Duration – 1 hr 40 min

One-act tragicomedy

Premiere – November 27, 2026

TEAM

Set Designer – Artūras Areima

Lighting Designer – Julius Kuršys

Costume Designer – Valdemara Jasulaitytė

Composer – Monika Poderytė

Choreographer – Sigita Juraškaitė-Baužienė

Play translated from English by – Saulius Repečka

CAST

Larisa Kalpokaitė MRS. JARRETT

Vilija Ramanauskaitė LENA

Janina Matekonytė VI

Jonas Braškys SALLY

Caryl Churchill’s play "Escaped Alone" (2016) is a conversation between four seventy-year-old women about today’s world and real, or perhaps imagined, threats. C. Churchill’s play is highly relevant in today’s world due to themes related to contemporary fears: the climate crisis, social isolation, and political and psychological instability. In the play, everyday conversations intertwine with apocalyptic monologues depicting a dystopian future dominated by ecological disasters, food shortages, and societal collapse. The play focuses primarily on the experiences of older women – a demographic group that often remains on the sidelines in both theatre and media. Their conversations, full of humor and warmth, contrast with the dark monologues, emphasizing the importance of community in the face of crisis.

The fragmented, almost absurd structure of the work resembles how we consume information today – through short messages, social media, and hearsay. The work criticizes the gap between daily life and global crisis – people continue to live as usual, even as everything around them crumbles.

"Although we constantly strive for happiness, prosperity, and a successful, healthy, and meaningful life, people are often prone to creating apocalyptic, pessimistic scenarios of the world. Are this conflict and fear encoded in human genes? Perhaps it is the foundations of Christian or Hellenistic culture? Or perhaps we create apocalyptic scenarios out of boredom," asks the play’s director, A. Areima.