Albert Camus „KALIGULA“ (Rež. Jokūbas Brazys) | Alytus

Attention! The performance uses loud sound and bright flashes of lights.

N-16

Albert Camus's philosophical play Caligula the plot is historical, but to consider it a traditional historical drama would be very inaccurate. In "Caligula", the writer was most concerned with expressing in a concentrated manner the ideas of denial and assertion, absurdity and rebellion, hope and faith characteristic of his philosophy and artistic consciousness.

The plot seems to be simple: Roman Emperor Caligula survives the death of his sister and concubine Drusilla. Confrontation with the loss of a loved one changes Caligula, and most of all his own relationship with those around him, his attitude towards the Roman Empire. Caligula begins to raise quarrels, "disturbing the peace of Rome". Caligula doesn't just play, he starts killing - countless hypocrites, sycophants and their innocent relatives are killed. Here it becomes clear that Caligula, who seems like a serial killer, is a man who is experiencing the absurd, and these murders are a sophisticated way of educating those around him. The play ends with Caligula's moral downfall and a double confession - to his lover Caesonia and to himself. According to the philosopher Vincent Klipčius, metaphorically speaking, Caligula is left in a state of borderline madness on a pile of human bones - in a world completely destroyed and eaten away like the acid of death.

In a dramatic act, with the hero's ambitious cold-bloodedness, this play still shocks us today, makes us think about the relationship between the government and the individual, and draws attention to today's context. The play remains relevant, dealing with people's experiences and relationships with authority and moral dilemmas in the modern world. Caligula himself can be interpreted as a character who has developed a sense of anxiety and dissatisfaction with the state of the modern world, and seeks to cleanse the world by baptizing it with fire. Caligula here is a figure looking for a new path, radical changes, cleansing the old world with blood. As both environmental problems and international conflicts become increasingly fierce, "Caligula" invites us to think about how personal and political will can affect the fate of the world.

Modern man the experience is often accompanied by anxiety about catastrophes caused by environmental changes, international conflicts and social inequality. Perhaps we must finally realize that we are inhabitants of one planet with a future? Caligula can serve as a symbolic reminder that choosing the right path is crucial in today's world arena. Do we choose darkness and destruction, or can we still find a way to save the world?

"Rebellion makes all experience conscious" - writes A. Camus. The death of Caligula's lover awakens a superman who rejects traditional moral norms and societal structures to create his own personal moral code. I am drawn to explore the depths of existential dread, despair and madness. The hell that Caligula creates is a resistance to inevitability. How do you maintain a balance between a crumbling world and a helpless person? I analyze the nature of existential fear. Drusilla's death has opened Pandora's box, and burning hands are powerless to close it. Caligula is an ode to anxiety." (Jakūbas Brazys)

"Jonas Vaitkus, Ignas Jonyns, Agnius Jankevičius, Vidas Bareikis, Eimuntas Nekrošius, many Lithuanians directors have staged this drama, but as Jakūbs Brazys summarized to the audience in one sentence, "It is important to analyze Camus at least every decade." (...) Now it is fashionable to create worlds, atmospheres. The atmosphere in Brazil is very theatrical. Like no one else, he knows how to create a theater within a theater very precisely and to immerse the viewer in multi-layered reflections, primarily related to the most important theme of the work being staged. This young director (...) was able to talk about Camus through Camus." (Daiva Šabasevičienė)

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Albert Camus (1913-1960) - French writer and philosopher, winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature, wrote the play "Caligula" in 1938. In its time, the play was not warmly received, but the novel "The Stranger" and the philosophical essay "The Myth of Sisyphus", which appeared in German-occupied Paris at the height of World War II, made it possible to look at this text in a completely different way, and thus "Caligula" fell with all its meaningful weight. Such a way of telling stories as this became the author's business card - A. Camus, after setting out his philosophical thoughts in a philosophical essay, created a novel and a theater play, which stood out without a philosophical load and with an indisputable artistic force.

Jakūbas Brazys (b. 1995) – theater director, student of Oskars Koršunovas and Eimuntas Nekrošius, 2021. completed directing studies at the Lithuanian Academy of Music and Theater. Created performances based on Moliere's play "The Misanthrope", "Macbeth" by William Shakespeare, "The Seagull" by Anton Chekhov, "Equus" by Peter Shaffer, "The Thick Notebook" by Agota Kristof. J. Brazys collaborated with festivals: "Face Theater Festival" in Budapest, "Volta On Line" in Vilnius, "Theatre Olympics 2019" in St. Petersburg. He worked as an assistant to the director Oskars Koršunovas during the production of Rimantas Kmita's "Remyga" at the Šiauliai State Drama Theater and William Shakespeare's "Othello" at the OKT/Vilnius City Theater.

QUESONIA

And that terrible freedom is happiness?

CALIGULA

Be sure of it, Caesonia. Without her I would have been a contented person. Thanks to her, I gained the divine insight of a hermit. I live, I slay, I wield unlimited power to destroy, and creation seems paltry in comparison. This is what it means to be happy. This is happiness, this indescribable liberation, this universal scorn, blood, hatred around me, this unprecedented loneliness of a man who never loses sight of his whole life, the endless satisfaction of an unpunished murderer, this inexorable logic that crushes people's lives, and yours, Caesonia , to finally achieve the eternal solitude I desire.

(Albert Camus. "Caligula". Translated from the French by Birutė Gedgaudaitė)

The show is shown in Lithuanian with Russian subtitles

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