– Recently, you can be seen less and less on stage, but “Portalas” was one of those performances in which you agreed to act. What attracted you to him, what is so hidden about him?
– I started to be very selective about where to act, who to communicate with and so on. An old actor said it very well to me: “It doesn’t matter what, it matters with whom.” I realized that I want to be among these people. I really believed in Mantu as a “director” – my mother used to say “director”. I immediately realized that I want to be here, I want to communicate, I want to act. And this happens the further, the less often. And I don’t regret it at all.
– There are more and more video projections, live broadcasts and other parallel realities in the theater. “Portal” is no exception, the main character of which plunges into the world of a computer game. What do you think modern technology gives to the theater and what does it take away from it?
– I am very wary of what I call cinema on the wall, but this performance is about it and you can’t get away without it, so it suited me in this performance.
I am not against cinema on the wall, as I call it ugly. And who needs it? Because life has changed. Everything has changed. You can imagine how hard it is for me to get used to those phones, those computers. I try to run away from them because I miss living people. I miss real passions, real people. It seems to me that in this play I found both the director and the partners. Amazing partners. And that old actor’s saying is really good: “It doesn’t matter what, it matters with whom.”
– Marius, Adelė, Matas – these are actors of the young generation with whom you worked while rehearsing “Portal”. What did this creative work with them give you and what do you think you gave them?
– They gave me strength. And now I work more with younger people, from whom I get a lot. I sometimes catch myself again, God forbid, an academic voice – like from a bad academic theater, there in the 1972s and something like that. I’m lucky to work with these people because we talked. We didn’t talk to some of the former students, but Adelė, Marius, Matas – they are so real.
Why is this show dear to me? Because it’s real. I never thought that I would be able to perform in such a small audience. Turns out, it’s a pleasure for me. I’m happy. It’s not about what, but with whom. I realized it was mine. This is what I dreamed of twenty years ago.
– What kind of viewer and why should they see “Portala”?
– Everyone. Both old and young. This is about us. The most important thing is not the cinema on the wall – the most important thing is us and how we communicate.
– What role, idea, proposal or collaboration with a certain director would you not resist today and enthusiastically attack to work on a new play?
– I’m waiting for a miracle.
Birutė Kapustinskaitė’s “Portal” (directed by Mantas Jančiauskas) – already on May 8, 9, 7 p.m., at OKT Studio (Ašmenos st. 8, Vilnius). Tickets are distributed by bilietai.lt
