19:00: Play: The Interpreter – A Lithuanian Drama

Free performance of the play ‘The Interpreter’ written by Laima Vincė and directed by Alicia Gian (USA) and Marius Mačiulis (LT). Seating is on a first come first serve basis and subject to capacity. Please arrive early for best seating. The house opens at 6:30.

Directors – Alicia Gian (USA)/ Marius Mačiulis (LT)
Playwright – Laima Vince
Stage Design – Angė Kupšytė
Costume Design – Indrė Budreckytė
Sound Design – Deimantė Ponelytė
Performance duration – 90 min. (without interval)
Actors:
Ridas Jasiulionis
Alina Leščinskienė
Arturas Varnas
Larisa Kalpokaitė
Laura Height (UK)
Renata Kutinaitė
Indrė Jaraitė
Tadas Gudaitis
Paulius Valaskevičius
Inga Filipovič

Knots are found in place of cut off tree limbs
Unfeeling, lifeless, blanketed in bark,
But still living, a part of the tree,
Their bodies decay, ever hardening,
Similar to stumps, to roots, to veins,
Their communion limited,
A slight touch of one another through bark,
Touching, trying, shifting closer 
To touch without touching                   (Virgis Malčius)

“We’ve already decided – we don’t talk about Lithuania when we’re together, because it’s cold there, it’s dark there, and it’s rains without stopping.”

Directors Alicia Gian and Marius Mačiulis say they labeled the bilingual production a “national patriotic drama” as a provocation – to make the audience reflect on what exactly this beloved motherland is. “She is like a young girl struggling to put on a national dress” Mačiulis comments. “Who will come and help her?”

They love their motherland from a distance, because each had their own reasons for leaving it. Adele could not support herself on a meagre retirement pension, so she went to England to find a job. Natasha was sold into sex slavery by her boyfriend. Joana left home hoping to find her true love. While Julius…

Julius used to believe in Lithuania, he shared in its euphoric experience of national liberation by helping it communicate with the English-speaking world. Twenty years later, he still does just that, but his Lithuania is very different now, scattered across the globe, though mostly over the British Isles. Julius lives in Buenos Aires with his Argentinian partner Xavier and every morning receives phone calls from welfare institutions in the UK, serving as an interpreter for fellow Lithuanians. They are the ones who personify Julius’s Lithuania – a homeless pensioner, an unemployed man abusing the British welfare system, a childhood friend named Joana with whom he used to play in a sand box underneath the singing pine trees. This childhood friend rekindles in Julius a nostalgia for his country while at the same time, reminds him of its betrayal. Joana stood aside when Julius became a victim of a hate crime in school. Perhaps, if she had come to him and wiped the blood off his face, he wouldn’t have left Lithuania. While communicating with Joana, regardless of distance, he rediscovers his Lithuanian identity which he left behind twenty years ago. Although Julius, played by Ridas Jasiulionis, sits thousands of kilometers away, he serves as the only channel of connection between Joana (Alina Leščinskienė) and the nurse (Laura Height) who treats her at the South London Women’s Health Clinic on nearly a daily basis. The two are bound together by a country neither of them has seen for years, and the more Julius thinks of it, all the more the distance between him and Xavier (Arturas Varnas) grows. It becomes harder and harder for Julius to maintain a professional distance between his work as a translator and his concern for his fellows citizens living abroad. Finally, he and Joana have to make peace with the difficulties of their past. A second chance – to wipe the blood away – can always be discovered.

 Laima Vincė is an author, translator, poet, and journalist. For more than twenty years, Laima has been interested in the historical changes happening in the Baltic states. When Lithuania was still occupied by the Soviets, she came to study poetry translation with Marcelijus Martinaitis at Vilnius University and to participate in the Singing Revolution; in 2008 she published a book of memoirs entitled “Lenin’s Head on a Platter” about the experience. After 20 years, in 1994, she returned to Lithuania as part of the Fulbright scholar program to teach poetry translation theory and creative writing at Vilnius University and at Vytautas Magnus University. She currently translates contemporary Lithuanian poetry and prose into English. She has received more than one national American award for her work such as the prestigious National Endowment of the Arts award and a PEN translation award.

In 2012, a reading of the play “The Interpreter” was staged at the National Drama Theater as part of the Lithuanian playwriting festival “Versme.”

This production is a part of the Baltic Pride 2013 events program. Performances on July 27th and 28th are free to the public courtesy of the US Embassy of Vilnius.

Seating is limited. Please arrive early to find a seat. Doors opens at 6:30PM.

For more information on the production please visit www.vkamerinisteatras.lt

Language: Mixed language production – Lithuanian and English

Location: Vilniaus Kamerinis Teatras / Vilnius Chamber Theatre, Konstitucijos pr. 23B

More information here.