The play "Third Shift" directed by Andrius Daryaly based on the play by the Belarusian playwright Pavel Pryazhko - one of the brightest representatives of the "new drama". In 2016, Pavel Pryazhko wrote a play, unique in the context of his work, about a children's camp and "innocent" childhood as a system of forced education. This funny text is interrupted by a very disappointing ending with a bitter philosophical charge.
According to theater critics, it is easy to answer the question why The Third Shift, of all the works created by Pryazhko, has become so widespread in the theater world. First, it is a rare piece of his without swearing. Second, she's funny. Thirdly, we are talking about childhood - a topic that anyone is ready to discuss with the author. Childhood, at the thought of which everyone has tears in their eyes, is, according to Pryazhko, a global deception. This is totalitarianism in the social sense, competition between males for the right to possess a female - in the biological sense, the ancient world of fate - in the mythical sense. Children here are the future, complemented by the past.
A group of Belarusian actors from two Grodno drama theaters and a regional theater have been living in Vilnius for some time. After the protests in 2020, they were fired from their jobs, left Belarus, came to Vilnius on creative grants and created the August Theater team. Andrius Dariala invited some of these actors to take part in his production.
“The play “Third Shift” has already become a classic of Belarusian new drama. Here we break the metaphor that the actors are adults, I ask them not to play children, I tell them: you are adult children in this camp and you cannot get out of it. All that remains for you is to destroy it or escape, ”says the director of the play.
