VMT premjera | ORFĖJAS. Rež. Ž. Vingelis, pjesės aut. J.Cocteau

Drama with surrealist features in two acts

Vilnius State Small Theater invites you to dir. Žilvinas Vingelis' play "Orpheus" based on the play of the French playwright Jean Cocteau (1889-1963), written almost a hundred years ago - in 1925, but the themes touched on here are relevant and important to this day. According to director Ž. Vingelios, it is a kind of fairy tale for adults about dreams and reality, about relationships, family and careerism, which overshadows it... "J. Cocteau behaves here like a careful juggler, creating a world where there is no single truth, and dreams become real again," says the director.
This play (originally titled "Orphée") is not only J. Cocteau's first major work for the theater, but also the first attempt of this artist to tackle the theme of Orpheus, which later accompanied him throughout his creative life. The plot of the play combines the traditions of classical theater, surrealism, Dadaism and visual arts. The historical and artistic significance of the play is indisputable, and there are almost no productions of it in the history of Lithuanian theater. According to director Ž. Vingelis, the main theme of the play is the contrast between reality and dream, life and death, creative ambitions and personal happiness. Features of Paris in the 1930s. Orpheus, a surrealist stream-of-consciousness poet, aims to write a brilliant poem for an upcoming mass-popular poetry contest. His creative method is the questioning of a horse that has taken up residence in the house, hoping to reorganize all poetry. Forgotten and rejected, Eurydice finds solace in the company of glass Ertebiz. Unfortunately, it soon becomes clear that neither Ertebizas nor the horse are what they are...
The audience on stage is transported to an aesthetic and at the same time mystical art deco style space, which is filled by composer Andrias Šiuris' performance extracted from various objects on the stage Harsynas.
In the play, you can see an ensemble of three generations of actors, intermediate stage solutions, as well as tall surgeons, the Guardian Angel working with glass, mirrors turned into doors to Death and other surreal images that became part of the world created by J. Cocteau and the play's creative team.
Today, Jean Cocteau would probably be called a creator of interdisciplinary art. He tried many professions: writer, poet, playwright, painter, prose writer, screenwriter, film director, graphic designer, pianist, interior and fashion designer, author of sculptures and surrealist objects, music and even boxing manager. According to the National Observer, from "a generation of artists whose courage ushered in the entire 20th century." for art, J. Cocteau was the closest to a Renaissance man".
It is interesting that in 1926 J. Cocteau's play "Orpheus" was staged in Paris by Georges Pitoëff, a French theater director of Armenian origin, with his wife Ludmilla Pitoëff. The scenery of the premiere performance was created by Jean Hugo, the great-grandson of the writer Victor Hugo, and the costumes were created by the French designer, founder of the Chanel fashion house and global fashion icon Coco Chanel. In his creative life, Mr. Cocteau collaborated and created with such artists of his generation as Erik Satie, Pablo Picasso, Guillaume Apollinaire and others.
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About the director
Žilvinas Vingelis - Lithuanian Theater director, founder and artistic director of the audiovisual experimental theater "Kosmos Theater", coordinator of the creative programs of the Vilnius theater "Lėlė". From 2019 Žilvinas is the artistic director of the annual international visual theater workshop "Kosmos LAB" organized by "Kosmos Theater", and from 2021 - Coordinator of the annual contemporary puppet and object theater laboratory "SurReality Check" organized by Vilnius theater "Lėlė". In addition to visual and contemporary musical theater ("Kafka insomnia", "Lila: the secret game of the demiurge", "Sonny's blues"), Žilvinas experiments with virtual reality ("Stranger", "Your Dream", "Life in Wanderings"), online art (" #Protest"), mobile applications ("Cosmos APP"), installations ("Cosmos Cars"), musical experiments ("Concert and installation for piano and furniture", "Work for piano, two cameras and seven objects"), contemporary opera (M. Nymanas "The man who supported his wife with a hat"), collaborates with Lithuanian video artists, representatives of visual arts and composers in interdisciplinary art projects. Ž. Vingelis is also a lecturer at the Lithuanian Academy of Music and Theater and a doctoral candidate in art.
2021. with the creative team was awarded the "Golden Stage Cross" in the Pandemic-Resistant Theater category.
Dir. Žilvinas Vingelis - 2023 the winner of the "DramaTest" competition organized by VVMT for the third year in a row, who presented a sketch based on J. Cocteau's play "Orpheus".

JEAN COCTEAU

ORPHÉJAS

Translated from French by Birutė Gedgaudaitė

Translation from French updated by Vincentas Klipčius

Creative group:

Director – Žilvinas Vingelis,

Author of the play – Jean Cocteau,

Scenography author and costume designer – Dovilė Gecaitė,

Composer – Andrius Šiurys,

Video artist - Rimas Sakalauskas,

Lighting artist - Simas Sirutavičius,

Choreographer - Mantas Stabačinskas.

Assistant director - Andrius Merkevičius

Played by:

Orpheus - Tomas Rinkūnas,
Euridice - Agnė Šataitė,
Ertebizas - Kasparas Varanavičius,
Horse - Greta Šepliakovaitė,
Mirtis - Valda Bičkutė,
Azrael, 1st Helper of Death / Voice of the Postman – Robertas Petraitis,
Rafael, 2nd Helper of Death – Lukas Dirsė,
Police Commissioner – Arvydas Dapšys,
Clerk of the court - Tomas Stirna.

Premiere - 2024. April 26, 27.

On the AllEvents portal you can always Buy tickets to an event Theater VMT premjera | ORFĖJAS. Rež. Ž. Vingelis, pjesės aut. J.Cocteau, Vilnius, Valstybinis Vilniaus mažasis teatras December 11

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