The premiere of the updated performance at the Lithuanian National Drama Theater was in 2015. February 6
Director Oskars Koršunovas:
Shakespeare's work "Romeo and Juliet" is usually imagined as an ode to romantic love. In fact, it is a social drama in which simple love takes on the highest tone of tragedy under dramatic circumstances. What interests me the most in this tragedy is that love is born and spread in hatred, in the atmosphere of war in Verona. I wanted to emphasize this paradox: hate kills, but it is precisely this that ignites the spark of love.
We can talk about this on a divine level as well - love is born out of hate in order to defeat the latter. It is possible that in fact the hatred itself is born out of nothing. The example of the Montagues and the Capulets is particularly eloquent, because no one knew the cause of the feud anymore. The reason for their war has long since been forgotten. Young Tebald embraces hatred and defends it as tradition. We often foster traditions that create antagonism out of perceived differences and support hatred. This, unfortunately, is an increasingly common principle - to rally the public in search of enemies.
In making the play, I wanted to delve deeper into how hatred shapes differences and becomes the cause of everything. It seems to me that hatred is the basis of the differences, which creates the illusion of difference between the Montagues and the Capulets, deceives and further antagonizes them. All societies divided in this way.
Love dissolves differences. It is the only one that shows that basically there is no conflict between the clans. Love creates freedom, and freedom has no opposites. Unfortunately, Romeo and Juliet find freedom only in death. Sacrificed freedom destroys not only modernity, which is determined by children, but also the tradition nurtured by parents.
The producer of the play is OKT / Vilnius City Theater
Co-producers – Avignon Festival, Remscheid City Theatre, Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Lithuania, THEOREM Program
