Currently, the actors are already rehearsing at the LNDT Small Hall, the premiere will take place on September 16 and 17.
Read more Power outage at the poultry farm over the weekend – sudden bird deaths
The creators of the play claim that one of the reasons why the novel written by the French prose writer Gustave Flaubert in 1856 remains so relevant is that the main character Emma’s desires are not entirely her own. They arise from a patriarchal imagination that verbalizes how she understands love, happiness, beauty, and self-realization.
Modern social media news feeds and recommendation systems work like the romantic novels Emma reads. They constantly present models of passion, success, and happiness, teaching not only what to want but also how to want. Emma’s tragedy lies not in excessive desires but in the pursuit of ideals imposed on her.
The play “Madam Bovary” features seven LNDT troupe actors: Žygimantė Elena Jakštaitė, Augustė Pociūtė, Vainius Sodeika, Gediminas Rimeika, Rasa Samuolytė, Neringa Bulotaitė, Šarūnas Rapolas Meliešius.
“Madam Bovary” was the debut and most famous work of the realist prose writer Gustave Flaubert. When the novel was first published in parts in the magazine “Revue de Paris,” state prosecutors attacked it as immoral. The subsequent trial made the work very famous; in 1857, Flaubert was acquitted, and the novel published in two volumes became a bestseller. It can be said that “Madam Bovary” started a new era in literature – by mocking the ideals characteristic of the Romantic era and the exaltation of moral values, it paved the way for realism and stunned 19th-century society.
The play looks at “Madam Bovary” not only as a story of one woman’s unfulfillment but as an investigation of the social forces shaping our desires. Emma’s fate reveals how identity, fantasies, and ambitions are formed through narratives we inherit before recognizing them as our own.
Moreover, this work seems contemporary to me because we never fully know whose voice we hear. Sometimes a sentence seems to belong to the narrator, then suddenly it sounds like Emma’s thought, a social cliché, or even our own, the readers’, judgment. Flaubert constantly blurs these boundaries, making it difficult to distinguish observation from desire, irony from sincerity, or criticism from identification. Instead of telling us what to think about Emma, the novel draws us into the language that shapes her,” says the author and director of the adaptation Oliver Frljić – one of the most prominent European theater creators, often called a theater provocateur by critics.
Read more You attribute it to fatigue and stress? The doctor named when feeling unwell is a warning sign
At the Lithuanian National Drama Theatre, in 2023 he created a play based on Franz Kafka’s work “The Metamorphosis,” which remains very popular with LNDT audiences.
The scenography of “Madam Bovary” is created by the duo “random heroes,” the costume designer is Diana Barkovskaja, the lighting designer is Dainius Urbonis, the video projection author is Ričard Žigis, and the sound designer is Romuald Chaloin Galiauskas.
The 87th LNDT season was created by the new LNDT Art Council, which consists of 11 members: director Yana Ross – chairwoman of the council, playwright Mindaugas Nastaravičius, theater scholar Martynas Petrikas, LNDT troupe leader Augustas Gornatkevičius, LNDT troupe actors Gediminas Rimeika, Vytautas Rumšas, Rasa Samuolytė, Aistė Zabotkaitė, head of LNDT Art Management and Dramaturgy Department Kristė Agota Savė, theater critic Rasa Vasinauskaitė, and Deputy Minister of Culture Tomas Juočys.
“Working with the new LNDT Art Service and creating the vision for this season, we raised the question of the horizontality of time – the flow of events moving from the past to the future, in which the present seems to be the most tangible. And our theater in previous seasons analyzed that present very diversely – today was inspiring, documentary, ironic, dramatic for us. And this linear, obvious, somewhat rushing time cannot be enclosed. It is always here, with us,” says LNDT General Director Martynas Budraitis.
You can read the full description of the 87th season here: https://www.teatras.lt/lt/87-sezonas/
Read more KMT changes: NKL team joined with famous names added
