„O Dieve mano!“

ANAT GOV „O DIEVE MANO!”

Psychologist Ela breaks her own rules and sees a client after work after he threatens that something irreparable will happen without urgent psychological help.

The visitor introduces himself as ...God. Ha ha ha! What could have happened for even God to need help?!

It turns out Ela has just 40 minutes to save the world.

A light-hearted, witty yet intellectual and prophetic dialogue between the Creator and the Created, on which

EVERYTHING!

Lumo Studio premiere, October 29, 2024

LAUGHTER AND CATHARSIS (TEARS) FOR THE PRICE OF ONE

“At first glance, Anat Gov’s play „Dieve mano“ seems like a rather simple comedy, astonishing from the first pages with its fantastical premise: God asks Ela, a psychotherapist for children(!), for help, or something irreparable will happen (as it turns out, an ‘improved flood’, ‘everyone is doomed, even the chosen ones’). Ela has only one session to save the world, part of which is ‘eaten up’ by her disbelief that her client is God.

For most of the play, we watch a sparkling, funny stand-up routine on familiar biblical themes, with wonderfully constructed dialogue and jokes. The basic aim of comedy—to surprise and make people laugh—is achieved.

But the familiar comedy suddenly cracks open, like a lightning strike, revealing the play’s second layer: the drama of characters usually considered the least psychologically vulnerable (Ela is a psychotherapist, while God is, after all, almighty).

The playwright set herself an exceptionally difficult and risky task: to make the audience laugh and bring them to catharsis in one performance (let us remember that catharsis, an essential element of tragedy, is by no means required in comedy). Paradoxically, then, Anat Gov’s comedy also brings tears to the eyes.

And one more paradox: the Israeli playwright acted in a thoroughly un-Jewish way—she sold two for the price of one. Don’t miss out!”

- Poet and playwright Mindaugas Valiukas, translator of the play

“I wonder what God looks like. Now I know what he looks and feels like... I have that privilege. It is very interesting.”

- Actor Vaidotas Martinaitis

“What would you ask if you had the chance to meet God face to face?

My character Ela says with certainty, ‘I don’t believe in God! Look around—do you think God is here?!’ Raising her autistic son alone and working as a psychologist, she has had plenty of reasons in life both to be horrified and to feel disappointed. But this meeting will be fateful. And it is unclear who will help whom undergo a healing transformation.”

- Actress Valda Bičkutė

“I have always been interested in roles of ‘different’ people, those whom most of society avoids or considers unacceptable. I am interested in how such people think, what they think about, how they accept life and how they enjoy it. And they really do enjoy it—perhaps even more often than those so-called ‘healthy’ people.

When I first read the play, it made me laugh; it is a lively and engaging story. I am glad this story came into the hands of director Gabriele Tuminaite. I believe the performance will not only make the audience smile, but also invite them to reflect and touch on issues of our time.”

- Actor Tomas Šečkus