The incredible success of the Kaunas Drama Theater performance is not only a joy, but also a headache Culture

The focus is on the funeral

The premiere of the play “When we will be young” took place in the autumn of 2023 at the National Drama Theater of Kaunas. The play for the performance was written by playwright Daiva Čepauskaitė.

In the play, directed by Aleksander Špilevojaus, a colorful group of old men gathers for the funeral of their childhood friend. They have a lot to remember, a lot to talk about.

The comic performance is full of humor and memories of youth, and it features theater actors of the older generation – Inesa Paliulytė, Jūratė Onaitytė, Liucija Rukšnaitytė, Vilija Grigaitytė, Lili Stepankaitė, Algirdas Pintukas, Liubomirs Laucevičius.

“Everyone tries to distance her, avoid her, escape from her. Some ignore it, others try to overcome it with scientific innovations, and still others make fun of it. No one is waiting for her, but she is coming. It often catches us unprepared, because we spend our whole lives thinking that she is still very far away, that she is visiting others, and will somehow magically overtake us. But it comes and stays, turning us into those who are still undeservedly on the margins of society. She is old age, a merciless guest whom no one is waiting for,” the play’s annotation reads.

Last year, the creative group of the play was awarded the “Fortūnas” award, and the actresses Vilija Grigaityta, Inesa Paliulyta, Liucija Rukšnaityta and Jūrata Onaityta received the “Golden Stage Cross” for their roles in “When we are young”.

The show is selected the best at the 40th Lithuanian professional theater festival “We play for farmers” in Rokišky.

“When We Are Young” also received positive reviews from critics.

Theatrologist Daiva Šabasevičienė emphasized in “7 days of art” that while watching the action and the actors, one cannot help but think about the wisdom of the playwright: “On the surface, the text is simple, recognizable, but at the same time very wise.

The characters speak little, but very precisely, and everyone can understand it differently. The stranger asks, “Are you closing yet?”, oh He replies: “We never close.”

And we don’t need any theories – we are allowed to experience a dramaturgical paradox: friends of youth speak nonsense at the remains of the supposed deceased, while the “eternal” caretaker of the hall scatters the truth like sparks. Shivers go through the body: the jokes begin to smell like a philosophical tragedy.”

You never know what the fate of a play will be

Will the performance be popular, will the audience accept it? Director Alexander Špilevoj says that there is never an exact answer to this question.

“You called me the day I have the premiere of another play. It is this question that is constantly on my mind. You are closed for many months with the actors and other creative team, you dive into the work itself. At the time, this work is very dear to you, but you don’t know exactly what will happen when it all moves to the stage. When there are already spectators. What kind of energy will be created between the audience and the actors, what kind of connection?” said the director.

But that everything will happen exactly like that – nothing can be guaranteed, you never know.

A. Špilevojus says that there are certain components, elements that can be used to predict the future path of the play, how successful it will be in breaking into the hearts of the audience, but you can never be completely sure: “There were successful elements.

Already during rehearsals, it was clear that when working with actors of this level, with such a dramaturgy, the scenography and costumes were composed. Everything was connected to the overall work and it seemed that it could potentially become very loved by the audience.

But that everything will happen exactly like that – nothing can be guaranteed, you never know. Creativity is always a risk. You’ll never be sure what the fate of your performance will be.”

Another point, the director said, are environmental events.

“You can create for three months, but during that time environmental events can change. For example, the beginning of the war in Ukraine obviously changed the fate of some performances.

Environmental events change the audience’s perception and relationship with the performance. There are many things that surround us that shape and change us. If it also changes the audience’s relationship to the performance”, said A. Špilevojus.

It is not the first time that the topic of old age has been touched upon

The director says that the subject – old age – was not a challenge for him. This is not the first time that the creator touches on the topic of old age.

“This is a dear subject for me. Before that, the most famous performance was “Bagadelnia”, for which I received my first Golden Stage Cross. I wrote dramaturgy for him, I spent more than half a year in a care home for the elderly, I communicated with people. I had to not only be with them, communicate, but also see them leave our world”, said A. Špilevojus.

A. Špilevojus grew up in a family where he was raised by his mother and grandmother. The artist’s relationship with older people was created through close people, through professional teachers: “It never ends. People change, it’s very important for me to get to know them, as a person, I get a lot of useful lessons from them, understanding not only about what old age is, but what is the path to old age. And how he determines it.

Therefore, this topic is not a challenge for me, but an attractive thing not only in the theater, but also in life.

They are masters, they have worked with directors of different generations.

Perhaps a bigger challenge was meeting the actors of the National Kaunas Drama Theater, who have vast experience in the theater. They are masters, they have worked with directors of different generations. So when you go to the first rehearsal, you feel a little extra responsibility”, said A. Špilevojus.

Speaking about the creative process, the artist said that there was everything and called it one of the most mountainous processes: “I’m not only talking about the rehearsals with the actors, but about the time in the theater. I don’t want to go into details, but there were very difficult moments and now it’s nice that everything finally paid off with this result. There are wonderful people in that theater.”

A sensitive relationship with the subject

Director of the National Drama Theater of Kaunas Egidijus Stanciks also says that the success of the performance cannot be predicted in advance. Especially such ones.

“When there is a dress rehearsal, when we watch it ourselves – you cannot predict how the real audience will take it, how they will reflect. There can be a perfect performance, but there is an extremely small handful of intellectuals who need such a performance, such a theme, solution”, said E. Stanciks.

E.Stanciks says that the success was determined by the especially sensitive approach of the director and the entire creative team to the topic.

The manager of the theater says that there is more than one ingredient that led to success. First of all, the very successful play by playwright Daiva Čepauskaitė: “The entire storyline is very recognisable. This is one.

Second, the bunch of actors. Starring senior actors with unique experiences. Professionalism, real theater is provided by bringing together on one stage such actors who are different in their creative traits, but almost the same in their experience.”

E.Stanciks says that the success was determined by the particularly sensitive approach of the director and the entire creative team to the subject, to the material, to the actors: “The director, being able to listen and hear the unique possibilities of each actor, brought them to the surface.

By creating a variety of characters for the actors, giving them various acting fulfillments. They are good on stage, they are coolthe energy vibrates.”

E. Stanciks pointed out that the play “When we are young” does not have the so-called external effect that video solutions or other modern theater effects would provide.

“This is a theater without technology, but through the experience and humanity of the actor. Things like that get people involved, and then word gets out that someone didn’t get tickets. Word of mouth is the best form of advertising.

It’s all very plays and gives the performance complete uniqueness in the context of the whole of Lithuania”, said E. Stancikas.

“Such sales records have never existed before”

The play “When we will be young” is not performed in the big one, but in the Rūta hall, which has 170 seats.

Head of the management department of the National Kaunas Drama Theater Skaistė Jurene says that tickets to the performances are sold out instantly. “After we learned from this, now, when we release tickets for sale, we leave some of them for sale at the box office. The target audience of the performance is older, not everyone uses the Internet – so they have the opportunity to buy tickets at the box office.”

S. Jurėnė says that the popularity of “When we will be young” has overtaken the previous most popular play “Panik” for many years, which is also shown in the Rūta hall.

Speaking about “When we’re young”, S. Jurėnė said that such ticket sales records and such angry people who didn’t get tickets had never been seen before. Although, according to her, the performance “Panik” is also extremely popular, tickets for it were not sold in 16 minutes.

With the performance “When we will be young” the phenomenon is also that people began to sign up for the theater newsletter en masse. In it, we inform you when ticket sales will start,” the interviewer said.

For tickets, contact the administration

According to S. Jurėnė, the spectators who have not received tickets are also contacting the theater administration.

“There is less of it now. But after the premiere, we also received angry calls – people wanted to buy tickets for the spring performances, but they were no longer available.

The audience was indignant as to why the play was shown so little, although it is shown more often than other plays in our theater. And the second complaint against us is that we hide the tickets”, laughed S. Jurėnė.

The representative of the theater says that one performance cannot be shown continuously. This is a burden for the actors as well, besides, the National Kaunas Drama Theater has over 30 plays in its repertoire and all of them must be shown: “We try to compile the repertoire in such a way that the plays are shown at least once a month. However, we really pay a lot of attention to this performance.”

Tours in autumn

Administrator of the National Drama Theater of Kaunas Adas Pliopa says that although the performance “When we are young” is aimed at older people, audiences of different ages come to watch it.

“The best emotions. People leave excited, happy. A huge bouquet of good emotions that both we and the audience get. A reciprocal exchange takes place.

Yes, the older audience is the bigger part, but that’s maybe because the older audience loves our older generation actors a lot. But young people, without exception, enjoy this performance just as much. It’s not like a certain age group prefers it,” said A. Pliopa.

Tickets for all performances of this season have already been sold, and in autumn the play will be shown in the National Drama Theater of Kaunas and will travel to other cities. Tours are scheduled in Panevėžys, Varėna, Mažeikiai, Anykščiai, Biržai, Alytus, Vilnius and Plunge.