Open Skin is a theatrical ritual for women only. There will be no passive observers, all will become participants. The girls of the Sensation Theatre and Kaunas City Chamber Theatre will explore their nature through everyday and archaic rituals together with the participants of the action. This is a sensual sauna for women, where it is good to be yourself amongst your own. To flow like a river with countless invisible dark currents, to hum and giggle, to smell the pores of one's skin. Our true inner skin, which we have grown thick or scarred, but which is still infinitely sensitive, able to listen, to sympathise, to delight. The ritual in the basement of the Kaunas City Chamber Theatre invites us to take off our everyday make-up and let ourselves be sensitive, strong, curious - just be women.
Pojūčių teateras are creating a new form of performances, in which besides the usual audience, there are also spectators with their eyes covered. In this kind of performance, movement, touch, sound, smell, taste, text, atmosphere and interpersonal communication are experienced more sensitively. In the theatre of the senses, "acting" takes on a new meaning, because the action is not only for the eye of the spectator, but for all his senses. Also, "stage" here does not only mean a specific physical location, but the scene moves from a specific place to the consciousness of each participant. The theatre of the senses transforms the body into a stage and the performance into a powerful experience of the present moment. The actor becomes a dedicated sensory guide, making the performance space empathetic for everyone - both those who see and those who do not.
Karolina Žernytė, the founder of the Theatre of the Senses and its director, often takes Lithuanian mythology as a starting point. Her work explores human nature, and mythology is a field that reveals it very vividly. People have created it intuitively, trying to understand themselves and the world around them.
Consultants: Jurga KATAKINAITĖ-JAKUBAUSKIENĖ ("Hortus Apertus" - scents), Laura LUKENSKIENĖ ("Kadujo" - sutartinės), Elona ILGUVIENĖ (Jungian psychoanalysis), Daiva VAITKEVIČIENĖ (Lithuanian mythology), Jadvyga BALVOČIŪTĖ ("Jadvyga's Herbs" - herbs), women of the Manor Bathhouse of the Rumšiškės Folk Life Museum.
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Participant feedback:
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"OPEN ODA takes you to the cosy twilight of the basement of the Kaunas City Chamber Theatre, welcoming you with aromas. Newly created feminine rituals bring the participants together in a feminine family, spending autumn moments knitting cobwebs of conversations, revealing themselves in movement or in silent presence." (Indrė)
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"The performance left a very good impression. Sometimes the proximity is a bit shocking, but you don't feel involved in the play the actors are creating. Blindfolded, the smells, the musical sounds, the gentle touches make you feel safe. Even those who were locked in their shells were not long in fully immersing themselves in the pleasant intrigue. After the performance, the audience sat in a circle and interacted as if they had known each other for days. When I left the performance, I felt like I was born again. I think that a similar performance should be created and enjoyed by men." (Alina)
