Lithuanian Festival

21 Jan - Monday
The One That Hurt the Most / film programme 3
22 Jan - Tuesday
The Doll / film programme 2
23 Jan - Wednesday
Goodbye My Love / film programme 1
24 Jan - Thursday
The One That Hurt the Most / film programme 3
25 Jan - Friday
The Doll / film programme 2
26 Jan - Saturday
Goodbye My Love / Asta (music: pop/electronic/classical)*CANCELLED*



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Creative Team

Reviews

"Get carried away with your imagination. Live up in your dream-trees and come down only to harvest your ideas" is one of the ten commandments of the Arts Printing House currently working in association with the Southwark Playhouse presenting the Lithuanian Festival. Set up in 2002 in Lithuania's capital Vilnius, the Arts Printing House nurtures its young artists in a safe haven where they can experiment, discover and ultimately strive for change to create new and uncompromising work. The festival sees the collaboration of not only theatre but also film, art, music and design which intends to make a connection with a British audience from whom Lithuanian artists have previously felt disconnected. As a self confessed novice to Lithuanian theatre, I admit I was unsure as to what to expect from this trilogy of work (of which The One That Hurt The Most and Goodbye My Love were performed). Two very different plays dealing with both personal and economic progress in a post Soviet Lithuania bought to life the difficulties of shaking off Lithuania's communist legacy in an attempt to conform to European Union standards. Exploring the lives of a group of gay friends, disconnected from a homophobic society, one could argue that The One That Hurt the Most was old hat. Haven't we seen the trials and tribulations of a marginalised, homosexual society presented time and time again as we witness the trauma of coming out to friends and family, the discrimination they endure and the effects of HIV on their community? The answer is yes, our cosmopolitan British audience are very accustomed to this topic; however to Lithuanians this is in fact very relevant and raw in a society where two thirds of the population claim they would rather have a drug dealer as a neighbour than a homosexual. Consequently The One That Hurt the Most felt anything but dated; in fact it felt very current and poignant. Labanauskaite has created a vibrant group of characters bought to life by a talented cast. The performances were primarily truthful and real. Even characters who may have at first been considered to be stereotypes, such as Blue (Daniel Abelson), the heartbreaking queen who glided about the stage, had depth to him, revealing fears and insecurities. Or Schnittke (Steven Beard), the aging gay man in his pink nightgown and matching lipstick. His costume was almost incidental to Beard's melodramatic interpretation of a man who lives his life as if it were a performance, too scared to be himself. As their lives are gradually turned upside down one couldn't help but realise the importance and courage of such a play that gives a voice to this group of people who are silenced by public discrimination. Goodbye My Love, whilst on the surface a play about capitalism in a post Soviet Lithuania, was more a play about relationships and family ties, speaking to all, regardless of cultural upbringing. Antanas is reunited with his mother Birute, as she visits Lithuania from her seemingly wonderful life in the UK where she lives with her Turkish lover. But we are soon questioning if life is as glamorous as Birute would have us believe. Daniel Abelson, in a total departure from his role as Blue, is exquisite as the poor, long suffering son of Birute. However Macevicius's dry and quick witted writing is let down by Valerie Gogan's portrayal of Birute. The writing suggests this is a character who is as up and down as a yo-yo and her verging on manic personality has been the bane of her son's life. Whilst Gogan certainly presented an entirely intolerable woman her performance lacked any colour or variation. Constantly on the same level Gogan seemed to adopt the technique of if in doubt, just shout. Ultimately this was a play speaking volumes about manipulation of one human over another and from the privileged position of an audience member I couldn't quite decide who I felt more sorry for? The Southwark Playhouse with its industrial space and slightly damp walls is ideal for showcasing these new plays, the occasional sound of the trains only adding to the raw, vibrancy of this work. If this is a taste of what we can look forward to from these emerging Lithuanian writers then I certainly wait with eager anticipation of what is to come from a country whose voice is now being well and truly heard. Review by Rachel Sheridan (2007)

British Theatre Guide Read Full Review

Little cheer from the Baltic here. This January Southwark Playhouse offers a modern Lithuanian one-act play, followed some nights by music or films at 9pm, on others extending from one to three dramas. At least, that was the plan, until the plays’ actual lengths became apparent, curtailing things to two shows. The pair above are joined by Festival Director Svetlana Dimcovic’s production of The Doll by Dovile Katiliute. The two I saw mainly impressed how different the same actors (only one performer doesn’t appear in both) can seem with different scripts and directors. Gabriele Labanauskaite’s The One That Hurt the Most is a collection of short scenes about the owners and habitués of a gay café, framed by visits to drugs-dealer Schnittke. Events include a desperate lover chasing the reluctant Jetaime, as well as the parents unaware their son has taken on that name in the semi-monde. The story drags along without much shaping, something Dimcovic’s functional direction does nothing to hide. Actors go through each moment without any sense of context. Steven Beard’s Schnittke is perpetually agitated in drab coat over pink underdress; actors like Valerie Gogan and Charlotte Pyke survive tactfully on experience, while less experienced performers are left high, dry and in one case underplaying to near inaudibility in this acoustic. They hardly seem the same performers as the assured company in Simon Usher’s production of Marius Macevicius’s Goodbye My Love. Birute has sold her seaview flat back home and given the money to an unseen but undoubted conman, who promises they’ll be using it to buy an Edinburgh cafe. Her son Antanas, with congenital heart-disease, berates her for falling for the trick. Here, performances interact, creating depth and linking separated scenes through emotional consistency. Valerie Gogan shows both Birute’s initial confidence over a new life in the prosperous West and her fight to overcome the doubts her son throws in the face of her happiness, while Daniel Abelson gives Antanas the near despair of seeing his mother’s, and his own, plans falling apart. There’s a strong sense too of these people’s social context, especially from Beard and Pyke’s couple Kazys and Stase. Review: Timothy Ramsden 15 January.

Reviewsgate Read Full Review

This season of Lithuanian plays, films and music at Southwark Playhouse is billed as a festival but I’ve seldom felt less festive than when leaving the theatre after its opening double bill. The best that can be said about ‘The One That Hurts the Most’ by Gabriele Labanauskaite and ‘Goodbye My Love’ by Marius Macevicius is that they offer a glimpse of life in a little-known European state: a place where homophobia is still rife, judging by the first play, and, according to the second, where locals maintain uneasy relationships with those who leave to make their lives elsewhere. But the plays are formally uninteresting and dramatically inert. Directors Svetlana Dimcovic and Simon Usher dress the actors in grey coats but there’s no need. Both productions already feel grey, with their televisual dialogue, static staging and plodding plots, neither of which are constructed to engender the slightest suspense or desire to know what happens next. Labanauskaite’s drama features the clients of an underground gay bar, one of whom – called Je t’aime – defiantly comes out to his disapproving parents. It’s sad but not surprising to learn that Lithuania is still fighting these old battles. It also means that the play feels wearily familiar. Likeable characters might have perked proceedings up but there are none, a problem the play shares with ‘Goodbye My Love’. Valerie Gogan does her best in the lead role of Birute, who returns from a seemingly prosperous life in Edinburgh to sell her flat in Vilnius. In this, she is vehemently opposed by her son Antanas and her friends, but it’s never entirely clear why. Mother and son’s endless squabbling fails to raise the dramatic temperature. On the contrary, both plays left me Baltic. By Brian Logan

Time Out Read Full Review

Mind Numbing Lithuanian Plays Only two of the three Lithuanian plays promised at Southwark Playhouse were performed on press night. That was possibly a mercy. The One That Hurt the Most is a gay issue play that we would have found patronising in the Eighties. Bludgeoning boredom subsides into seeping boredom with Goodbye My Love, about an emigrant to the UK who returns home to sell her flat - 53 minutes of bitching about property. By Kieron Quirke

Evening Standard Read Full Review