LRT shares news of Lithuanian theater showcases

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“Guided” was born out of creative workshops, that have been taking place in the Pravieniškės prison facility since 2021. During them, both director Mantas Jančiauskas and playwright Rimantas Ribačiauskas were working with twenty inmates.

By working on their newly invented genre of a performative meeting, the authors are looking for new forms of coexisting in theatre and trying to invent active, provocative, but also safe performance mechanics, engaging both inmates and spectators. During this performative meeting 10 inmates face 10 spectators for a dialogue, that none of the parties is prepared for in advance.

Today, approximately 6000 people in Lithuania are serving sentences in correctional facilities. It’s one of the biggest numbers in Europe. Sooner or later most of them will walk free. Somewhere at the back of our collective mind there is a comforting belief, that a new changed man will walk out of a prison. By serving time he redeemed himself, learnt not to commit crimes and no longer has such intents. Although reality is often quite different. Words of a French philosopher Bernard Stiegler perfectly describe Lithuanian prisons – crime schools.

What can be done to make inmates want to and be able to change? Is the society, hoping for a safer world, ready to take a different look at the inmates?

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Director of the younger generation Mantas Jančiauskas started his career exploring and critiquing contemporary consumer society. Soon he became interested in documentary theatre and turned his attention to people, and the influence of history and social environment on their lives. He works at the Lithuanian National Drama Theatre and OKT/Vilnius City Theatre, collaborates with Operomanija.

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Rimantas Ribačiauskas has been working in theatre since 2013. In 2017 he started working as a dramaturg. His first work was a documentary performance “Green Meadow” (Žalia pievelė, directed by Jonas Tertelis) about the city of Visaginas and its inhabitants. Ribačiauskas is actively working with documentary materials, new methods of creative research and performance development.