Druskininkai Theatre Festival 7th edition: The Adventurous Spirit of Fluxus
On July 10, the vivid and colourful Yongnam Yesuldan dance and music show from South Corea will brighten the quiet atmosphere of Druskininkai and open the 7th edition of Druskininkai Theatre Festival – the most expected and welcome summer festival for the local people and guests of our recreational town. The festival is going to present us, traditionally, the season‘s brightest and most prominent theatre performances, movies and music projects.
The prelude for the 7th edition of the Festival gives us an exciting opportunity to see Corean traditional dance and music. The Yongnam Yesuldan collective only accepts highly professional dancers, singers and musicians that make up the best representation of the Corean tradition. Their show is going to introduce popular folk songs representing the different historical provinces of Corea. We will also see the dances that root from shaman and Buddhist rituals, and hear their unique musical instruments. Before the show, the centre of Druskininkai will welcome the audience to make Corean traditional paper handwork, try on the flamboyant hanbok, the Corean traditional costume, or write their names in hangeul, the Corean alphabet. The Yeongnam Yesuldan show is part of Corea Days programme in Lithuania – the event organized by Asian Studies Centre at Vytautas Magnus University in Kaunas.
This year, the Festival will surprise us with a solid and gripping theatre programme that, after a long break, shines with the names of world-famous Lithuanian directors Oskaras Koršunovas and Rimas Tuminas. They will present us their internationally recognized performances: „The Lower Depths“ after Maxim Gorky‘s play, which got the Season‘s Best award in Lithuania in 2010, and „Mistr“, a play by celebrated Lithuanian playwright Marius Ivaškevičius. The wizards of Lithuanian theatre stage will compete with extraordinary works by a whole bunch of young theatre creators: Loreta Vaskova, who has directed “Valentines Day” at Šiauliai Drama theatre, and actors of the Open Circle collective, who have been polishing the myth of Antigone. We will also see “Le Dîner de Cons”, a comedy by France-residing translator and director Michel Poli set up by Russian Drama Theatre. The foreign guests of the festival will also see a row of dance performances: classical ballet show starring the most brilliant Lithuanian ballet dancers, as well as the opening night for “Arachne”, a performance by Baltic Ballet Group that has been practicing the new ballet, and “Vigil” – piece by Vytis Jankauskas, the guru of modern dance. One of the most fascinating projects of the Festival will certainly be the creative laboratory for “Mr. Fluxus” – the work by “No Theatre” movement initiated by young actor and musician Vidas Bareikis, who is currently studying theatre directing in Moscow, Russia. The laboratory will continue for one month, which gives all the people coming to Druskininkai a marvellous opportunity to accidentally become the participants of this artistic event. The Festival will finish by presenting the draft of this project, whose consultant is world-famous Lithuanian-born artist Jonas Mekas.
The musical programme of Druskininkai Theatre Festival this year is especially rich and enjoyable. It will start with a lively show by singer Rasa Bubulytė and the band, who have just come back from Liverpool, UK, and will continue with traditional Georgian songs performed by Shorena. The Festival will also receive a musical gift from Jurga Šeduikytė who will give an acoustic concert with her new songs, and a wild show by Gaio de Lima from Brazil, featuring his international quartet. The Festival will traditionally give one of the nights to the young generation, who will be able to go crazy under the open sky after electronic music of the Salty Nights. The Summer Amphitheatre will enjoy the legendary SEL, the forever young band that started in the 1990’s.
We will also continue our pleasant acquaintance with creative works by celebrated European artists and performers, as well as new pieces of Lithuanian cinema, and invite our audience to meet the artists at a closer distance, up to the moment when the Festival finishes on August 21.
Tickets are available at “Tiketa”.