September 23 and 24, Croatian National Theatre at 7:30 p.m.
State Small Theatre of Vilnius, Lithuania

directed by: Rimas Tuminas

Mikhail Lermontov: THE MASQUERADE
Rhymed play in four acts

Rimas Tuminas has chosen a work of art belonging to the epoch of romanticism and used it to express the contemporary world full of phantasmagorias of our time. The play counts on the attentive spectator, the one thirsting for beauty and humour. The love story, in which a lost bracelet becomes an epicentre, is twined around all sorts of characters: gamblers, ladies, a baroness, a prince, valets and characters who are difficult to characterise. These are persons who surround us every day, who are the mediators and saboteurs of innocent love.
The Masquerade speaks not only about a masked ball, a geographical place, but also about human relations woven in intrigues: where there are humans, there is also disaster. Man is naturally a masked creature and we can only imagine what he is capable of hiding under his real mask.
Masquerade is a triumph of the return of light the audiences have long waited for. This is a show where snow pours from the above and its blinding whiteness plays off against the black backdrop, where the intrigues of aristocratic characters of the play are woven in the open space, where the rhythm of romantic verses is heard as an incessant motif of a Khachaturian waltz. All this creates a nostalgic atmosphere. R. Tuminas adores the scenic effects, but in his plays you'll never find art for art's sake: everything has a reason, a motive. His Masquerade blends the cool aestheticism of Ingmar Bergman with the passion of the Russian soul.