Setting the stage for a provocative theater festival

  • 2005-09-14
  • By Milda Seputyte
VILNIUS - Theater is always on the menu in Vilnius, but the annual Sirens Theater Festival is when you get the cream of the crop, with the added zest all crammed into just a couple of weeks in the early fall.


The festival features 18 major theater attractions, plus a large sideshow of lectures, critical panels and discussions. The major international artists featuring at this year's festival include Belgium's Luc Perceval, Hungary's Arpad Schilling, Spain's Rodrigo Garcia and Belgium's Victoria Theater.

The program opens with Luc Perceval's "Othello," which is a golden opportunity to see a new star in the form e of Berlin-born actress Julia Jentsch, who will be playing the role of Desdemona. Jentsch won the Best Actress prize at this year's Berlin Film Festival for her convincing portrayal of anti-Nazi resistance heroine Sophie Scholl in the competition film "Sophie Scholl -- The Final Days," a decision which went down well with both critics and audiences.

"Othello" director Perceval is often associated with the so-called 'Flemish-wave,' which reinvigorated the somewhat conservative Belgium and Dutch theater. Perceval has repeatedly won awards for best director and his plays constantly feature at various European theater festivals. What's more, "Othello" will be spiced up with live music improvisations by the famous pianist Jens Thomas, who is nicknamed by journalists as "the Jimi Hendrix of piano music."

The confrontational Spanish director Rodrigo Garcia used to work in advertising. But flogging cars, flavored milk and mobile telephones clearly weren't creative enough for him. When he founded his own theater company in 1989, he called it La Carniceria Teatro: theatrical butchery. He was out for revenge by making theater that would confront and challenge the out-of-control consumer culture we live in.

The Story of "Ronald, the Clown from McDonald's," which Garcia is bringing to Vilnius, is his anti-capitalist opus on the hypocrisy of nations. As semi-naked bodies squirm about on stage in fast food, there is no room for shame or timidity. Needless to say, this play is not for the faint-hearted.

Arpad Schilling, a leading figure in the new theater in Hungary, will be showing his satire "Black Land" which evolved from mobile phone text messages into a theater script. This highly prolific director, along with the Kretakor Theater, will also be presenting an experimental version of Anton Chekhov's "The Seagull" performed in a chamber space.

The production by Rimini Protokol, a group of German artists, was inspired by the notorious bankruptcy of Sabena, the Belgian airline company. "Sabenation" is about the horrible experience of 12,000 people who lost their jobs back in 2001.

As for home-grown theater, the festival organizers have given a fair share of stage space to new works by Lithuanian directors. If there are degrees of Lithuanian-ness, the so-called Lithuanian philosopher of theater Eimunatas Nekrosius will be staging the most Lithuanian play of them all in his latest work "The Song of Songs." Based on Biblical text, he sets the action in a Lithuanian village at the turn of last century. But the plot has little to do with the scripture that inspired it.

The final performance in the festival will be dedicated to the most recent work by one of the undoubted stars of Lithuanian theater, Oskaras Korsunovas, "The Death of Tarelkin" is the first work by the director to be produced in Moscow and is yet more proof of Korsunovas' talent. There's an awful lot to look forward to all in all, but be advised to book your tickets well in advance. o

Sirens Theater Festival

Sep. 24 - Oct. 4

For more information:

www.sirenos.lt