Florian Zeller "THE FATHER" (Dir. Jonas Vaitkus)

Translated into Russian by Ilya Imenitov "The Father" is a production by director Jonas Vaitkus based on French novelist and playwright Florian Zeller's play "The Father" (Fr. "Le Pere"), the second part of a theatrical trilogy ("The Mother", "The Father", "The Son"). Written in 2012, the play has won three Moliere Awards and has been nominated for prestigious UK theatre awards. Zeller's play is a testament to the distortion of consciousness, its fading, the gradual loss of memory, and with it the loss of family, loved ones, and connection with the outside world. The central character, Andre (Vytautas Anuzis), is 88 years old - reasonably sharp for his age, but showing clear signs of an Alzheimer's-like illness. The disease progresses inevitably. Reality becomes entangled with images rising from the subconscious. Old age, a diseased mind and a clear intellect struggle with one another. From this emerges a conflict with reality, with loved ones, and with human existence itself. Andre increasingly recalls his deceased daughter, the artist Eliza (Jelena Orlova), who in his mind is alive, simply away somewhere. The character of Eliza is associated with freedom and independence, and permeates every scene. Hope is focused through the bright memory of his daughter; the proposition that art is more powerful and more important than everyday life, needed to contain our instincts and inner predator. Jonas Vaitkus (b. 1944) is a theatre and film director, theatre educator, laureate of the Lithuanian National Prize and numerous other awards. He has created nearly a hundred drama productions and operas in Lithuania and abroad. Florian Zeller (b. 1979) is a French novelist and playwright, one of the most talented authors of his generation. At the Paris premiere of "The Father", the French actor Robert Hirsch, for whom Zeller wrote the role, was 88 years old - exactly the same age as the protagonist Andre. In 2020, Zeller directed a film based on his play in which Anthony Hopkins won an Oscar for the lead role.

Adresas: Vilniaus senasis teatras