LNDT’s play “Republika”, directed by Łukasz Twarkowski, is often presented abroad: last year it was shown at the Holland Festival in the Netherlands, and in 2022 twice in Germany: at the Ruhr Triennale and at the Kammerspiele Theater in Munich. In May of this year, the creative team will travel to Belgium, where three screenings will be held at the Kunstenfestivaldesarts festival (May 23, 24 and 25).
Kunstenfestivaldesarts is an international performing arts festival founded in 1994. and dedicated to contemporary theatre, dance, performance and visual arts. The festival takes place in around thirty places in Brussels – theatres, cultural centres, museums and public spaces. This year, the premiere will be presented to the festival audience by the “Back to Back” theater company from Australia, known worldwide for turning disability into a tool of artistic research and was awarded the “Golden Lion” for lifetime achievement at the 52nd Venice Theater Biennale.
A new interpretation of the Last Supper will also be presented by the collective from Brazil MEXA, which was named as one of the discoveries of the festival last year. Choreographer Idio Chichava will perform “Vagabundus”, a piece full of traditional and modern Mozambican songs and gospel motifs, and the famous Japanese director and playwright Toshiki Okada will invite you to a science fiction piece about language. The artistic directors of this festival also name “Republik” as one of their recommendations.
May 31 and June 1 In Toruń, at the “Kontakt” festival, LNDT’s performance “Metamorphosis”, created exactly one year ago, inspired by Franz Kafka’s work, will be shown. The LNDT performance, presented by director Oliveris Frljić, who is called a theater provocateur, has the honor of opening the festival this year. Since 1991 Kontakt is organized by the Wilam Horzyca Theater in Toruń and invites artists from various countries every two years.
The performances are often provocative and cover difficult topics. This year, the play “Dorian” directed by Robert Wilson at the National Drama Theater of Kaunas will be shown right after the “Metamorphoses” of LNDT, which will open the festival, as well as the play “Kurlmēm zeme” created by Alvis Hermanis at the new theater in Riga, “The Employees” presented by Lukasz Twarkowski in Warsaw, the French theater “Compagnie 111” and the Italian Teatro Biondo co-production “Invisibili”.
On June 13, 14 and 15, three more “Respublika” rave sessions await in the Greek capital, Athens. LNDT productions are presented to Greeks by the Onassis Stegi Arts Center, which is part of the Onassis Foundation. Foundation in 1974 was founded by Aristotle Onassis, and its main activities are education, health and culture.
In March, “Onassis Stegi” already presented the performance “Rohtko” created by L. Twarkowski in Riga, before that, Oscar winner Tilda Swinton organized a performance here with costumes from P. Passolini’s films, a performance based on the book by Nobel laureate Olga Tokarczuk “Drive your horse through the bones of the dead” was shown by the British actor and director Simon McBurney, the famous European choreographer Christos Popodopoulos was invited to a new interpretation of Homer’s “Odyssey”, and Soundwalk Collective together with the poet Patti Smith presented the sound and visual project “Correspondences”.
In July, the performance “Silence of the Sirens” directed by Laura Kutkaitė will go on its last tour of the 85th LNDT season. The play will take part in the Estonian theater festival “Balstoscandal” on July 6 and 7. The biennial festival will be held for the 18th time and is the oldest international theater festival in the Baltic States. Its artistic director is Priitas Raudas, and the event is organized by the Rakvere Theater.
“Silence of the Sirens” will be shown in the Great Hall of the Rakvere Theater. Robert Henke, whose work has been exhibited at the Tate Modern in London, the Pompidou Center in Paris and elsewhere, will also be performing at the festival. “Back to Back Theater” from Australia will also perform, which will also be in Brussels, and at the 52nd Venice Theater Biennale p “Golden Lion”-winning choreographer and scenographer Lawrence Malstaff from Belgium, famous for his modern solutions, will be hosted by Florian Malzacher, who worked with Forced Entertainment and Rimini Protokoll, book launch and other events.
“We are very happy about all the tours, it is an appreciation and a sign of quality for our theater. Foreign tours and building connections with European theaters are one of the priorities of our theater. In this way, Lithuanian artists come into contact with different cultures, a more diverse audience and can feel the pulse of contemporary theater. Lukasz Twarkowski’s play “Republic” created by LNDT opened a very successful phase of the director’s career – currently L. Twarkowski is one of the most sought after European directors, whose works are presented in Paris, Athens, Milan, Vienna.
For the Lithuanian theater, the “Metamorfose” tour is a return to the “Kontakt” festival, where plays by Eimuntas Nekrošias and Oskars Koršunovas have been shown several times. I am happy that the connection with the festival has been renewed again. Laura Kutkaitė’s performance “Silence of the Sirens”, which has already been appreciated abroad, will be shown in Estonia, we hope that this performance will be as relevant to the audience of “Baltoscandal” as it was to the audience in Dresden”, said LNDT artistic directors Kamilė Gudmonaitė, Antanas Obcarskas and Eglė Švedkauskaitė.
