AUSTERLICAS. Rež. Krystian Lupa

Based on the book by W. G. Sebald.

Director, author of the staging, scenographer: Krystian Lupa
Costume designer: Piotr Skiba
Author of video projections: Mikas Žukauskas
Composer: Arturas Bumšteinas
Texts translated from German by Rūta Jonynaitė from W.G. Sebald's book "Austerlicas" are used in the play.
Director's assistants: Tauras Čižas, Maksym Teteruk
Starring: Sergejus Ivanovas, Valentinas Masalskis, Viktorija Kuodytė, Jovita Jankelaitytė, Matas Dirginčius, Danutė Kuodytė, Girius Liuga

The youth theater play "Austerlicas" is the second production of the Polish theater visionary Krystian Lupa in Lithuania (after the play "Heroes' Square" created at the Lithuanian National Drama Theater), which won as many as three the prestigious "Golden Crosses of the Stage" awards, having represented the theater culture of our country at several important international theater festivals.

In 2001, after the performance of "Austerlitz", Sebald was nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature. Unfortunately, the writer died unexpectedly in the same year. "Austerlitz" has been translated into many languages ​​​​of the world and has become a classic of modern literature. "Austerlic" was translated into Lithuanian by Rūta Jonynaitė, the book was published by "Baltos lankos".

The events of "Austerlic" cover six decades, from 1939 to the end of the century. The action takes place in Antwerp, Wales, Oxford, London, Paris, Prague, Terezin, Marienbad... Historical events have ended before the beginning of the story. Sebald describes almost the last three years of the 20th century. chance encounters between the narrator and the lonely wanderer Austerlitz in different European cities over the decades. Until he became an adult, Austerlitz did not know his real name and origin, nor who his real parents were. The five-year-old boy Austerlitz was sent by his mother on the life train from Prague to London shortly before his deportation to the Terezin concentration camp. The father is missing. Austerlitz was adopted under a different name and grew up in Wales, studied at Oxford, settled in London after his studies and worked in the 20th century. architectural research. Lived without memory until he was struck by a flash of memory at Liverpool station, where he was once brought on the life train. Then he started searching for his childhood home and parents. But returning home to Prague only reinforced Austerlitz's sense of alienation, and only the search for traces of his parents gives his life meaning...

I have always thought that the most important thing of all is to write about the history of persecution and blackening of minorities, a well-executed effort to destroy entire nations. And in implementing these ideas, I realized that it was impossible to do; writing about concentration camps is, in my opinion, practically impossible. So, you have to find ways to convince the reader that you have this in mind, but not directly talk about it on every page. That's why I never describe the scenes of the greatest horror. We have all seen their images, so I think it is enough to remind people about them, because these images overshadow our ability to soberly perceive and reflect on them. And paralyzes our moral powers. The only appropriate way, in my opinion, to talk about these things is indirectly, associatively, avoiding confrontation. This thought of Sebald conveys his essential creative attitude.

New Yorker columnist Mark O'Connell has aptly observed that Sebald's work is not about how we should understand the Holocaust, but it encourages us to think, why we cannot understand the Holocaust'. And this is what makes her fundamentally different from the majority of contemporary artists who try to talk about this topic.

Following Sebald, director Krystian Lupa defines the starting point of his performance as follows: In order to talk about an essential topic for myself, I have to destroy the person I am in normal life. And to give birth to another person whose germs I feel in me - Austerlitz. I become a vagabond, a lunatic... I have to go nowhere and, roaming the boundaries of my inner ghetto, experience a complete fall in order to touch what is impossible to talk about in normal language. Without Austerlitz, I, as a person and creator, cannot mature, become myself. This is how Austerlitz's biography was born from my biography as a writer. It's locked and I have to open it because that's the only way I can realize who I am. Austerlitz is me at the edge of my mind. And this is me, a German, as a Jew.

Actors playing in the play "Austerlitz" speak:

Valentinas Maslaskis (Author Sebald)
I like "Austerlitz" because is like a very slowly flowing, deep channel, in which many different things have sunk. Some of them are covered with shells, and even if you took them out of the channel where the water flows slowly, you might not even recognize what is under the shells. Then only from some forms you begin to understand...
Sebald does not speak directly about the tragedy of the Holocaust, but looks at how it affected people who were born much later. How the affected generation cannot find itself and cannot be productive, cannot dedicate itself to life or creativity until it finds itself. "Who am I?" is a huge problem for Sebald himself as a German.

Sergejs Ivanovas (Austerlitz)
Working with Krystian Lupa is an incomparable experience. The schools of Lithuanian directors are the same, intertwined. Everything is connected, you can discover it by working with one, with the other. And Krystian Lupa is... probably unique in the world. His stylistics, the way he approaches his work is an unknown land for me. On the one hand, it's a great joy that I can experience it, on the other hand, it's a pity that I don't know it yet. It takes a long time to get the hang of it…
When I read Austerlitz, I found it unscenic, but I had seen a couple of Lupa's works and knew it was his material. The more unscenic she is, the more he likes her. It's probably a pain for actors, it's much more fun for them when it's as clear as in table tennis, when the dialogue, tasks and aspirations are clear, and in our work - real wanderings of the human subconscious, and finding and feeling all this is extremely, hellishly difficult, but also very interesting.

Viktoria Kuodytė (Mari de Vernėj)
Mari de Vernėj is from the life of Austerlitz, when he was about forty. She was probably his first and only, let's say, romantic love, which could have become a part of his life, but the relationship did not develop as Marie de Vernej wanted. She knows that there is a task that she wants to solve: if she manages to get this person out of herself, she will be happy, and he will be... Meanwhile, Austerlitz thinks that if he stays with this woman, he will not fulfill the main task of his life - to discover himself: who is he like that? This performance is extremely musical - just not as a drama, but as a piece of music... The director expressed the idea that there are unplayable things and urged not to be afraid of it. This is the case with the Holocaust, the unfathomable cruelty, the fate of the Jews. We in the twenty-first century do not have that experience. We cannot play it, convey it. We ourselves cannot even feel them, we have to tell them through something else.

Premiere: 2020 September 23.

More about the performance

Discounts do not apply to tickets to the premiere, educations and to performances and events held by other organizers in the Youth Theater. Students, schoolchildren and seniors must present a relevant document - a student, schoolboy or pensioner's certificate - at the entrance to the Youth Theater together with the ticket. Those who do not present certificates confirming the right to a discount will not be admitted to the theater, and money for tickets will not be refunded.

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