This play is about the tragic fate of film director Mantas Kvedaravičius – he was killed by Russian soldiers in Mariupol, the fate of women and love against the backdrop of the war against Ukraine. It is a testimony – of the power of love, fragility, and also hope.
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The life drama of Mantas Kvedaravičius on stage
„Dievų aušra“ (Dawn of the Gods) is a sensitive play that has received the highest praise from critics. The initial sketch of Marius Ivaškevičius’s play was shown at the Old Theatre of Vilnius and the Avignon Theatre Festival back in July 2022. So the play, somewhat changed, came full circle back to its starting point. The actor from Estonia, Artiom Garejev, has revealed that this is more than a play, it is the fate of real people.
By the way, even before the premiere at Estonia’s „Südalinna“ theatre, which took place on May 30, 2025, M. Ivaškevičius’s play was recognized as one of the best in Europe in the international „EURODRAM“ competition, and also the best play of 2024, translated into German.
Director Elmo Nüganen: „I didn’t have the play I wanted to stage. When Marius Ivaškevičius found out about this, he said he had one. And here we are working so that society talks about these topics, so that they don’t forget, so that we don’t sweep everything under the rug, so that we don’t ‘get tired.’ What could we even get tired of? We live in peace. The other matter is the people at the front. And what right do we have to get tired? It seems stupid and arrogant. It’s idiocy. I think now is the time to talk about it.“
Bilingual and uncomfortable
The play is staged with two casts and will be performed in Estonian (October 8) and Russian (October 9, 10). The latter production features Russian and Ukrainian actors. The performances will be shown with Lithuanian subtitles. Staging the play in two languages was director Elmo Nüganen’s decision. This was intended to reach as wide an audience as possible.
M. Ivaškevičius about the bilingual production: „As it later turned out, this decision was very wise not only artistically but also politically. These two plays became a kind of cross-section of Estonian society, where more than thirty percent are Russian-speaking. The Russian-speaking Tallinn audience attended the Russian ‘Dievų aušra’ reluctantly, even though it was held in their ‘native’ theatre. Apparently, for most of them, still influenced by Russian propaganda, this play was obviously uncomfortable. Meanwhile, the Estonian-language hall was always packed.“
Reality is stronger than theatre
Who killed Mantas Kvedaravičius? This investigation is carried out by the play „Dievų aušra“, centered on Mantas’s fateful journey to the hell of Mariupol and the detailed account of Mantas’s fiancée Ana about the circumstances of that tragic event.
The large-scale war against Ukraine caught Lithuanian director Mantas Kvedaravičius in East Africa, Uganda. There he was filming his new feature film, in which his beloved Ana, originally from Ukraine, also acted. Mantas wanted to turn a new page in life – to quit his current work as a documentary filmmaker in war zones and start a normal life: marry Ana and have children. That was supposed to be their new life, but the war interfered.
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When the Russian army approached Mariupol, Mantas realized that he would no longer be able to live as an ordinary person: he knew the people in Mariupol, he was making a film about them. And when the city was surrounded, he went there to finish the film. Ana went with him. He managed to work, film for several weeks, but later fell into the hands of the Russian army and was killed. Ana did not know this, she searched for her missing husband in the war-torn city, where bullets flew and bombs fell on both sides of the front line, until finally the place of his death was revealed.
She managed to secretly escape, take all the documentary material, her husband’s body, and reach Lithuania. Later the film was edited in Paris and titled „Mariupolis 2“.
M. Kvedaravičius was posthumously awarded the European Film Award for Best Documentary.
Elmo Nüganen: „It probably resembles a love story more“
Director E. Nüganen, asked why he decided to stage this play at all, answered very clearly: „This is at least a small contribution of mine, a reaction to what is happening now in Ukraine, and my civic duty to make sure that as many people as possible learn about it, remember it, and that humanity in the future encounters such inhuman decisions, when one state chooses the path of force: to attack another country with tanks and missiles, as rarely as possible.“
E. Nüganen: „It probably resembles a love story more. But it is also the story of two other soldiers who also saved – one a child, the other a mother. All the characters on stage are actresses, so these are female characters. Sacrifice for the sake of love – there is a lot of it in this play. Well, of course, there is also humor, because the relationship between Mantas and Ana was very interesting. There was a very original and huge love between them.“
E. Nüganen is an actor, director, and since 1992 the chief director of the Tallinn City Theatre, awarded for his work both in Estonia and abroad.
The tour of Estonia’s „Südalinna“ theatre at the Old Theatre of Vilnius is not one-way. In 2027, there will be a „reciprocal“ tour of the Old Theatre in Estonia.
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