(ATŠAUKTAS) AAT|Artūro Areimos teatro spektaklis ''ARTI/БЛИЗЬКО''

Performance “Close/Блізько”
according to documentary material

Premiere in 2023 May 5,6^th in Alytus City theater

Duration 100 min | N-16

director/set designer: Artūras Areima

playwright: Kristina Marija Kulinič

producer: Inga Sanakojevaitė

light artist : Eugenijus Sabaliauskas

choreographer: Marius Pinigis

composer : π

sound operator: Andrius Kairys

starring: Eglė Špokaitė, Modesta Jakeliūnaitė, Monika Poderytė, Eglė Grigaliūnaitė, Gytis Laskovas, Šarūnas Datenis, Kristina Marija Kulinič

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Supported by the Lithuanian Council of Culture

​Project partners Alytus City Theater, ARTON

In 2022 in February, when the war in Ukraine started, the director Artūras Areima suggested to the playwright Kristina Marija Kulinič and 7 actors of the young generation (actively delving into the difficult war situation and supporting Ukraine or volunteering) to start a collective creative process and write a play that would present not only a topical, controversial journalistic and documentary material, the works of Ukrainian authors, but also their current experiences as Lithuanian citizens, young witnesses of the war. The creative team is convinced that creativity, despite the fact that it is powerless on the battlefield, is currently the main tool of the artist, a way of expression, a way to deal with psychological health and to respond as adequately as possible to the ongoing catastrophe.

The creative team of the play and the future performance has deliberately avoided using authentic (non-poetic) Ukrainian texts, as all creators are united by the belief that it is ethical to speak only about personal experience in the first person - today, unfortunately, the theater is incapable of embodying and conveying cruel, concrete events happening at the present moment human experiences.

The authors of the upcoming play will try to remind and emphasize that the emotional experiences of people who currently support Ukraine are similar, and the fact that there are various reactions to the ongoing events - from emotional closure to excessive involvement - is normal. The future performance should encourage the viewer to analyze a personal, authentic relationship with the ongoing war, accept and understand negative feelings, but also help to experience all feelings collectively, communally, to feel such an important unity in the current context.

More information: www.areimosteatras.lt