What is a family? Does its classic concept still work? Is it time for a new concept? Director Naubertas Jasinskas is looking for answers to these questions in the premiere "Pelikanas", having chosen the Swedish classic August Strindberg's play as a starting point.
August Strindberg develops a new form in the collection of "chamber plays" of his late work, which aims to communicate people's life perspectives in a different way. In the play "The Pelican", the emotional and effective weight is shifted from superficial to somewhat more sophisticated circumstances, reminding us that there are metaphysical laws that can operate outside the physical boundaries of the dramatic action.
In the performance, the artists question the necessity of the concept of family, analyze the causes of violent (both physical and psychological) acts occurring in the family, the personal and environmental events of the characters and the points of contact of all this. The director and his team look at all this through the prism of the family model created in A. Strindberg's play. They raise questions that are becoming essential today: what is a family? Does its classic concept still work? Is there a need for a new definition that reflects the relationships between people of this time?
The director of the play N. Jasinskas, reflecting on the spots of everyday violence, questions the aspect of natural thinking strategy.
"I often don't trust my imagination. More specifically, the inability to think multi-layered. And anything that seems multi-layered is more of a colossal coincidence than a conscious thinking strategy. For example, in order to understand the text that I am speaking to you, you need to understand the meanings of the individual words that make up this sentence. However, the general meaning of the thought does not lie in the words themselves - it is a combination of individual words and the whole. And then an elementary question arises - is it possible to change the thinking strategy? Is this even possible?", asks the director.
When making Pelikan, the director was greatly influenced by philosophy, specifically by Hans Georg Gadamer.
"I accidentally fell into my hands with Gadamer and his idea of the hermeneutic circle. The latter can be defined as a perceptual mechanism constantly moving back and forth between "parts" and "whole". It is the opposite of, or a great addition to, our perception of the linear world. Imagine not only being able to think in the present tense, word by word, image by image, but also being able to think multi-structurally. For example, to simultaneously perceive not only the present, but also future or even possible future events. How would this help us all avoid excessive violence and open up new opportunities for mutual communication", says N. Jasinskas.
