Adaptation of the screenplay of T. Vinterberg's film "Jagten".
This small town could be anywhere in Lithuania. Or maybe in Latvia. In fact, it can be in any country. It is no different from other towns. Its inhabitants go through similar ups and downs as many other people. The children of the residents of a small town attend the same school as their parents. Everyone knows each other and everyone knows each other's business. The human routine that repeats itself year after year connects all the inhabitants of the town in one common web of life. Until she is torn apart by a scandal. A town teacher is accused of sexually abusing a child. The fragile network of relationships is torn apart and the view of a peaceful town opens up into deep chasms of anger and hatred.
The child's accusation is false.
But does the truth matter when the secret fears and nameless demons that lurk outside the small town suddenly take on a face? What, that face of a familiar person, a friend, a teacher.
Sensing the blood, the warlocks are already sniffing the air, an ever-growing crowd of them flying in the wake of their fears.
The director Elmaras Senkovas is already familiar to Klaipėda viewers - in 2018 directed the performance "Mama Dąsa", which even won two "Golden Crosses of the Stage": E. Senkovas was awarded for the best direction, and Darius Meškauskas won the "Best Actor in a Drama Role" nomination for the role of Mamma Dąsa.
"The Hunt" is a play about the human ability to be cruel, especially when it manifests itself within the framework of common social conventions, in a small community where it is so easy to drive a victim into a corner. "21st century law collides with emotions. Do we have the right to judge another? Do we know what is true? If a person kills a murderer - does he become a murderer? Is it right that Anders Breivik, who killed 77 people, is sitting in a comfortable prison? These are difficult, uncomfortable questions. Maybe that's why we need a performance to raise them. I don't want to provide answers - I'm just showing the problem," says director E. Senkov.
According to him, "The Hunt" will also talk about the microclimate of the family and the small town community and the demons of fear born in it. "In small communities, you have to stick together. We are few, that's why we have to be strong, and we will be strong only when we are together - maybe this is one of the reasons why nationalism and xenophobia are so alive in small countries. In this sense, the play reflects the micro-world of our countries - both Latvia and Lithuania", thought E. Senkovas, touching on another sensitive topic - the pre-occupied defensive position of small societies, the constant search for enemies among those they consider foreigners.
