Performance „The Barefoot Canon“

Screenwriter, director – Eglė Tulevičiūtė. Cast – Kristijonas Siparis (Canon J. Tumas-Vaižgantas), Virginija Kuklytė (housekeeper Emilija). Costume designer – Inga Šalnienė, make-up artist – Dalia Jovaišienė. Organiser – Theatre „Arbatvakariai“, partners – the Maironis Lithuanian Literature Museum, the Marija and Jurgis Šlapelis House-Museum, „Filigrania“. The script was created based on literary sources: „The Unforgettable Vaižgantas. Memoirs, Essays, Letters“, „The Family Correspondence of Juozas Tumas-Vaižgantas“, „By the Path of Culture: Letters of Juozas Tumas-Vaižgantas“, A. Merkelis's „Juozas Tumas-Vaižgantas“, and the stories and insights of literary scholar and museum specialist Remigijus Jakulevičius. The performance „The Barefoot Canon“ is dedicated to one of the most outstanding Lithuanians – Juozas Tumas-Vaižgantas (1869–1933). If the writer, literary historian, critic, public figure, educator and canon J. Tumas-Vaižgantas were alive today, he would again be searching for „little diamonds“ – young, civically responsible people talented in art and science. Wanting to know his nation, its people, their customs and even their faults as well as possible, he understood that one must look not only broadly, but as deeply as possible. Tumas was an extraordinarily broad-minded personality, one who outgrew his own era. As a priest he was incredibly liberal and humane, marrying couples without confession or other formalities. For this he was disciplined more than once by church leadership, and was eventually made an emeritus ahead of time. Vaižgantas himself once wrote: „I am an ultra liberal, an ultra progressive, an ultra democrat, an ultra patriot, an ultra arrogant person, an ultra lazy person, an ultra individualist, entirely incorrigible…“ So it's no surprise that such an „incorrigible“ personality was not comfortable for everyone. J. Tumas was a universal man – priest, writer, teacher, journalist, theatre critic, public figure, someone who knew the world and shaped it through his own search and charisma. Throughout his life, under tsarist Russian rule and during the years of Polish occupation, Vaižgantas nurtured the Lithuanian word, distributed banned press while serving as vicar in various Lithuanian parishes, drew crowds with his inspiring sermons, and later rebuilt the Vytautas Church in Kaunas with his own hands and personal funds. This performance goes beyond the boundaries of classical theatre, blending documentary reality and psychology with theatrical fiction in an authentic space where most of the historical artefacts can be touched by hand, allowing a personal connection with the surroundings.

Adresas: Marijos ir Jurgio Šlapelių namas-muziejus, Pilies gatvė 40, Vilnius, Vilniaus m. sav., Lietuva

Kaina: nuo 45.00 €