Inspired by the phenomenon of “Drama Territory,” the OKT theater names its 28th season “Code: LT” and will attempt to decode and recode the Lithuanian socio-cultural code.
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In the new season, at least five premieres will see the light of the stage, generating both present and past Lithuanian codes, trying to synthesize them and create a code that surpasses time (this has happened more than once on the OKT theater stage).
It will not be possible to avoid losses – from the middle of the season, the OKT studio, which has existed for almost two decades and has become an important part of the DNA of Lithuanian theater, will cease to exist. However, after losing the support of the Vilnius city municipality, patron Tadas Burgaila significantly contributed to the theater’s survival.
In the first half of the season, the OKT theater will still invite audiences to performances at the OKT studio, and having lost its theatrical laboratory on Ašmenos Street, it will conduct even more Lithuanian code tests in other locations – performances will be shown in new spaces in Vilnius, and tours around Lithuanian cities will become even more intensive.
The research will not be limited to Lithuanian territory, as a performance at an international festival in Barcelona (Spain) awaits in October.
Antanas Škėma, the theory of bullshit, and the Nobel Prize in Literature laureate
One of the strongest moments of the last century, when the Lithuanian code opened up like an exposed nerve to global art and history trends, was the appearance of Antanas Škėma’s novel “White Shroud”, which director Jaunius Juodelis will bring to the OKT stage. The main character of the play, Antanas Garšva, absorbs the principles of French existentialism, European will, and life philosophy and, like in the famous Edward Munch painting “The Scream,” shouts out his alienation and despair in the shadow of New York skyscrapers.
The roles in the play are performed by Matas Sigliukas, Gerardas Ciparis, Rokas Siaurusaitis, Alisiia Nesterova, and others. Will the play retain the vivid code of anxiety and creative frenzy recognizable to most Lithuanians? The answer will be revealed on September 30 in Varėna, at the Dalia Tamulevičiūtė Theater Festival (the idea of this play won the Lithuanian authors’ stage art competition), and on October 2 in Vilnius.
Another premiere this autumn is Goda Simonaitytė’s play based on her own script “Bullshit”, which won first place in the “Drama Territory” competition. The playwright and director draw on the popular work by Harry Frankfurt, “On Bullshit,” which examines one of the most widespread phenomena of our time – the production of bullshit, practiced by politicians, artists, opinion makers, advertising agents, and representatives of other fields.
In the play, G. Simonaitytė tries to decode a code that helps answer the question of how the contemporary Lithuanian art world works and how a young artist should behave in it. Here are the young artist’s inferiority regarding the art funding system, the importance of the artist myth, and the crossing of moral boundaries for the sake of popularity. The roles are played by Gytis Laskovas, Karolis Kasperavičius, Inga Šepetkaitė, Algirdas Dainavičius, Dovilė Šilkaitytė, and Janina Matekonytė. The premiere is on October 13, 16, and 18 at the OKT studio.
One of the most anticipated premieres of the season is Oskaras Koršunovas’s play based on the Nobel Prize in Literature laureate Jon Fosse’s play “Winter”, with roles performed by Aurelija Tamulytė and Mantas Vaitiekūnas. J. Fosse’s works have been translated into more than 40 languages, his plays are staged in many theaters worldwide, and the influential British newspaper “The Daily Telegraph” ranked J. Fosse 83rd out of 100 on its list of living geniuses.
At the center of the play is a chance meeting of a couple. He is a prosperous businessman, a successful person, called the golden part of our society; she is a woman with a free outlook, seen by most people as being at the very bottom of society with no prospects of rising. As the action unfolds, it becomes clear that they are meant to be together, but it is impossible because they come from “different” worlds, belonging to radically different social strata of the 21st century. Is it possible to “break” this social norms code that works very precisely in Lithuanian society? The answer will be revealed at the premiere in January.
Dalia Grinkevičiūtė, the memory code, “Macbeth,” and what lies in the DNA of a Lithuanian actress
In November, we will try to see what lies beneath the DNA code of a Lithuanian actress. One of Lithuania’s most prominent actresses, Eglė Mikulionytė, director and choreographer Vesta Rasa Grabštaitė, artist Julija Skuratova, and composer Antanas Jasenka take on the play “Comic Tragedy” by contemporary Belgian artist Eve Bonfanti, considered one of the most prominent faces of Belgian theater.
Here, the artists will pose the Hamlet-like question “Who am I?” already raised several times at the OKT theater, analyzing who they are as creators and who they are as people, where the boundary lies, and whether its drastic push can be a fatal step. What remains when the role ends, especially when we live in a world where the role increasingly becomes more important than the person? Where is the point that separates Eglė Mikulionytė from the Nurse in “Romeo and Juliet” or Anushka in “The Master and Margarita”? The premiere is on November 28-29 at the OKT studio.
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The fifth premiere is William Shakespeare’s “Macbeth”. The classic work is taken on by director J. Juodelis. The code of “Macbeth,” written by the British classic 400 years ago, in the hands of the young generation director and other creators becomes another part of the synthesis of today’s Lithuanian DNA code. “The world of ‘Macbeth’ is close to our current state – it is a world where stability is lost, and the future becomes hard to predict,” says J. Juodelis about the upcoming premiere. The roles will be played by actors Matas Sigliukas, Digna Kulionytė, Inga Juškevičiūtė, Alvydė Pikturnaitė, Rokas Siaurusaitis, Gabija Bargalaitė, and Karolis Legenis. The premiere is in April.
The sixth premiere of the season is the play “Practicing Exit” by actress and interdisciplinary artist Kristina Švenčionytė. Here, we will try to create a Lithuanian memory and resistance code functioning in the 21st century. In creating the play, the artist draws on the memories of Lithuanian exile, doctor, and writer Dalia Grinkevičiūtė, which intertwine with Kristina Švenčionytė’s own family’s exile stories, diaries, letters, poetry, and live testimonies. This documentary material is combined with an artistic investigation of historical and contemporary forms of resistance, the impact of collective trauma, and ways to preserve human dignity in difficult circumstances. The artist will try to find an answer to how fear, control mechanisms, and traumatic experiences are passed from generation to generation. The premiere is at the end of the season, in May.
Lithuanian code test in Barcelona
Since the beginning of OKT’s existence, an inseparable part of its identity code creation has been a kind of test at international festivals abroad, where performances are like litmus papers “dipped” into the “liquid” of the international audience awaiting a reaction. Such tests abroad have saved more than one performance already “condemned” in Lithuania.
At the end of October, Eglė Jackaitė and Oskaras Koršunovas’s “The Holy” will face the audience in Barcelona (Spain). The play will be presented at the international festival “Flaix de tardor”. The play, which deals with the highly relevant topic of women’s position in society in Lithuania, has been successfully presented in Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, and Ukraine – based on audience reactions and feedback, this topic is also pressing in their countries. The vast majority of Oskaras Koršunovas’s plays have been successfully presented in the Catalan capital Barcelona and nearby Girona. We will find out how “The Holy” fares in October.
“Drama Territory” will continue
Born from the initiative of the independent OKT theater and private sponsors, “Drama Territory” has become a phenomenal phenomenon. More than telling is the fact that almost 100 plays were submitted. The phenomenon of this competition lies in that it did not end with the announcement of winners and the distribution of prizes – one could say it only began here. In the first year alone, six public play readings took place, attracting actors and directors who had not previously worked at the OKT studio. Among the audience were not only loyal viewers but also many new faces. The first “Drama Territory” play is already turning into a “body” – the premiere of “Bullshit” will take place in October.
At least two more plays based on “Drama Territory” scripts will see the light of the stage. The first is a play based on Marija Dautartaitė’s “Urn,” directed by Kirilas Glušajevas. At the center of the play is the death of a family father living in emigration, the journey of his closest people to collect the urn, the funeral, and many conversations during which the story takes an unexpected turn. The idea for this production won this year’s Dalia Tamulevičiūtė Lithuanian works competition. The premiere is in the fall of 2027, next season.
The second is Edward Saszko’s “Viking,” directed by Darius Gumauskas. It touches on a very sharp father-son drama. To understand why his son committed a crime, the father agrees to participate in an experiment – to play his son in an interrogation. The premiere is also in the fall of 2027, next season.
This season will also feature a reading of another play from the top ten “Drama Territory” plays – Ieva Marija Sokolovaitė’s “The Siege.” It is a pseudo-medieval story about the conflict between two dukes – the Castle Defender and the Conqueror – heavily “diluted” with today’s social signs. We will inform about the reading time soon.
OKT laboratory will become stages across Lithuania
2026 will be the last year for the OKT studio, which has existed for almost two decades and has become an important part of the DNA of Lithuanian theater. From September to December, the last actor encounters with the audience will take place here.
Having lost its theatrical laboratory on Ašmenos Street, the OKT theater will conduct even more Lithuanian code tests in other locations – tours around Lithuanian cities and performances in yet undiscovered spaces in Vilnius will become more intensive. “The Holy” based on Vidmantė Jasukaitytė’s novel (dir. Eglė Jackaitė and Oskaras Koršunovas), Florian Zeller’s “Mom” and Birutė Kapustinskaitė’s “Therapies” (dir. Kirilas Glušajevas), “The Feast” (dir. Kamilė Gudmonaitė), Bertolt Brecht’s “The Wedding” (dir. Oskaras Koršunovas), Nikolai Gogol’s “The Madman” (dir. Oskaras Koršunovas), “Buy an Elephant” based on Dovilė Zavedskaitė’s play (dir. Eglė Kižaitė) – these are previous performances that, together with the mentioned premieres, will form the core of the 28th season repertoire.
Vilnius will remain the epicenter of Lithuanian code creation, but testing laboratories will become stages across Lithuania. These include Kaunas, Palanga, Šiauliai, Varėna, Panevėžys, Alytus, Joniškis, Gargždai, Anykščiai, Biržai, Kelmė, Rietavas, Kretinga, Radviliškis, Marijampolė, Pakruojis, Nemenčinė, Plungė, Vilkaviškis, Šilutė, Elektrėnai, Ukmergė.
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