Friday, November 12 | 21:00 | Theater im Werftpark
UNĖ
written, directed and performed by Birute Mar [Lithuania]
Birute Mar, the internationally acclaimed actress, author and director is back in Kiel with her brand new (premiere in October 2010) show UNĖ. She participated in THESPIS three times and twice she won the main award. Her play “Unė” was the winner of the Lithuanian national playwright competition in 2009.
UNĖ is a monologue based on the diary of Unė Baye-Babickaitė (1897-1961) who was one of the most colourful personalities of the last century Lithuanian theatre. Actress and director, Unė appeared in Hollywood films and on American and Parisian stages. The diary, written between 1930 and 1932 in Paris sparkles with subtle irony and gives impetus to the creation of a dramatic piece about the funny, ephemeral, heartless and magic world of theatre (which, as it happens, has not changed much). It also examines the artists’ nature - the paradox involving the persons and their masks (in society and on stage). A mask is needed in real life to protect individuality while on stage it allows a person to open up.
There are two heroines in the play: the actress portraying Unė, and Unė herself - in the role of actress, mask and understudy. Ingmar Bergman’s thoughts from Persona may best describe the central idea of the play: “You rested when you performed on stage. That was your excuse - that other roles (life roles) were performed more superficially”.
music by Antanas Kucinskas
choreography by Edita Stundyte
stage and costume design by Jolanta Rimkute, Dmitrij Matvejev
produced by the Lithuanian National Drama Theatre, Vilnius
language: English, Lithuanian, Russian | running time: 60 minutes | German premiere | out-of-competition performance
