When the body temperature reaches 37 degrees, a person begins to feel out of sorts. Sometimes it is a physical reaction of the body, sometimes an emotional one. This limit is marked on the thermometer with a bright red line, crossing which is intuitively dangerous. This is the human body temperature limit, where the comfort zone ends. This limit will be explored by four directors presenting four premieres in the new season.
Read more „Bankeros“ founders – who are these three entrepreneurs suspected of squandering 45 million euros?
They are Milda Mičiulytė, Arvydas Lebeliūnas, Jonas Tertelis, and Romanian director Catinca Drăgănescu, a familiar face at European international festivals. M. Mičiulytė’s play based on Jurga Ivanauskaitė’s novel „Witch and Rain“ premieres on October 2 and 3.
Are theater and the human body and emotional temperature connected? Should a play force the audience to leave their comfort zone? Or perhaps it should create a sterile, safe, and comfortable environment? Can the actor’s temperature in emotionally borderline scenes be close to a fever? And the viewer’s? Finally, can theater not only measure but also raise or lower a person’s emotional temperature? These are the questions Alytus City Theater will try to answer together with the audience in its 37th season.
The first premiere – based on the cult novel „Witch and Rain“ by Jurga Ivanauskaitė
Jurga Ivanauskaitė’s novel „Witch and Rain“, which saw the light of day at the beginning of independence, was banned as soon as it was released and immediately became a symbol of new freedom in Lithuania. Today it comes to the stage of Alytus City Theater – no longer as shocking, but no less open, sensitive, and burning to the depths of the soul.
The play „Witch and Rain“ is directed by Milda Mičiulytė. This is the director’s second production at Alytus City Theater. A couple of years ago, she created a musical interpretation of „Baltaragis’ Mill“, which became one of the most attended plays at the theater. The premiere of „Witch and Rain“ is on October 2 and 3.
„When creating plays, I am first attracted by good literature. This happened with Jurga Ivanauskaitė’s „Witch and Rain“. It is a complex work that can be conveyed on stage in several layers. She writes very visually; her texts emphasize not only events but also atmosphere, dreamlike images, and symbols. This is also my theater language,“ says director M. Mičiulytė.
Before Christmas – a premiere not only for the little audience
In winter, Alytus City Theater will welcome the season by presenting a premiere for the little audience. This time it is a play based on the novel „King Matt the First“ by the famous Polish writer, doctor, educator, and children’s rights advocate Janusz Korczak, directed by Arvydas Lebeliūnas. The premiere is on December 12.
The main character of the play, Matt, unexpectedly becomes king. He is still a child and does not quite understand how the state, politics, and power work, but he quickly sees one thing: adults decide everything for children. Matt decides to reform the state. He aims for children to have more rights and influence, tries to change the state governance, and create a better life for children.
The play „King Matt the First“ raises a question that is relevant today not only for children but for each of us: why do adults, who know how to govern the state, so often fail to create a just world?
Read more „AirBaltic“ initiates restructuring under the US Chapter 11 process, will continue flights
The play „Brothers and Sisters“ tested in another sensory temperature
How does the theater temperature change when the environment changes? Alytus City Theater actors will feel this soon. In October, director Kiril Glušajev’s play „Brothers and Sisters“ based on Dmitry Boguslavsky’s play will be presented at the international festival „Kierunek Wschód“ in Białystok (Poland).
„Kierunek Wschód“ is a festival held for the tenth time. Every year, the brightest productions from Eastern European countries’ theaters are presented here. This year’s program includes troupes from Poland, Armenia, Georgia, North Macedonia, Lithuania, as well as Belarusian artists living and creating abroad.
„Brothers and Sisters“ is already the fourth Alytus City Theater play presented in this festival’s program. Previously, the plays „Marytė“ (dir. Stas Zhirkov), „Hotel Renaissance“ (dir. Matteo Spiazzi), and „(Not) Children’s Games“ (dir. Albertas Vidžiūnas) were presented here.
The youthful unstable temperature of Shakespeare’s sonnets and the explosively hot „Antigone“
In April, the audience will await the third premiere of the season. It is the play „154 Shakespeare Lies“, created based on Shakespeare’s sonnets and creative workshops with Alytus students. Director Jonas Tertelis, together with theater actors and city students, will lock themselves in a theater laboratory to try to feel how Shakespeare’s and his sonnets’ temperature has changed over the past 400 years and how it changes by „pouring in“ the hot youthful blood of today.
Jonas Tertelis is a director who graduated in film directing but creates documentary and co-creation based stage art works in theater. Currently, he is researching in the doctoral art studies at the Lithuanian Academy of Music and Theatre how to sensitively convey trauma, personal and collective memory on stage, seeking how to remember what was not experienced and how to recognize it in one’s environment.
The season will end with the Romanian director Catinca Drăgănescu’s play „Antigone“ based on the ancient Sophocles’ play, which has become more relevant than ever today. It is a play about the conflict between inner truth and power. Government decisions and laws suddenly contradict moral and human norms. Antigone stands in their way. Resistance to falsehood and the demonstration of power – all this we see in today’s Lithuanian culture, politics, and sports world. The cultural field representatives who initiated the civic movement „Cultural Assembly“ are generally today’s Antigones – brave, unafraid to speak the truth and fight to the end, no matter how much time and effort it takes.
C. Drăgănescu is undoubtedly one of the most prominent directors who have worked at Alytus City Theater. Her biography includes more than 40 plays, installations, and performative projects created in various European countries. The director’s plays have been presented at festivals in the USA, Germany, Austria, the Netherlands, the Czech Republic, Poland, and elsewhere. In 2026, she was nominated for UNITER, the prestigious Romanian theater award. In her plays, C. Drăgănescu constantly keeps her finger on the pulse of social and political issues. Her theater not only tells a story but also involves the audience in reflecting on the questions raised. The premiere in Alytus is in June.
So, in the 37th season, Alytus City Theater’s audience will await four premieres that will adjust each of our emotional temperatures with their theatrical temperature. Sometimes we will come to the theater feverish, but after ten minutes, we will sit in the audience calm, as if having taken a theatrical paracetamol tablet. Sometimes we will come indifferently cold, but just a few powerful scenes will be enough to raise our temperature and make us sweat. Sometimes we will „catch“ a fever from the actors and burn together until the final scene. And sometimes the experiences in the play will raise the temperature so much that we won’t sleep all night – such evenings are also needed in the theater.
Read more A revolver found in bushes in Vilnius
