Director Agnius Jankevičius: “Politics, religion, sex – topics that always resonate” | Culture

We talk to the director himself about why a lot of good classic rock will be played live in the performance, about the special youthful energy that exists in the rehearsals and about the character of Benjamin Ziudelis created by the playwright Marius von Mayenburg especially for the VST actor Igor Abramovič.

Director Agnių Jankevičius is interviewed by theater expert Ingrida Ragelskienė.

– What inspires you to create this performance? Why did you choose pop-art stylistics unusual for our theater to reveal the multi-layered theme of religious radicalism?

– Pop art itself, as an art direction, at least for me personally, is a bit of a kitsch game. In some sense, it also correlates with how I try to unlock Marius von Mayenburg’s play itself. Through songs, musical narrative, through the energy transmitted by music.

– In your productions of recent years, music has become especially important?..

– This is related to the pandemic, especially the second quarantine. I had the honor of talking with an advisor of the then Minister of Health Veryga. Such a young fellow… In the summer, during the release between two quarantines. He said that there is talk in the corridors of power that there will definitely not be a second quarantine, because the economy is in trouble.

I was sure he wouldn’t. I was just in a bad mood, and when they announced that second quarantine, I was possessed by a very strong depression. Very brain clapping. And how did I save myself?

I’ve played guitar before, but I started to dig deeper, play more complex jazzy, bluesy riffs, which I hadn’t tried before. I wrote several songs, and then they ended up in the play “Caligula” staged in Kaunas after the quarantine. I felt that I could do that. For example, in Šiauliai, when we staged “The lost honor of Katarina Blium”, I wrote all the songs, Pijus Ganusauskas arranged them.

Photo by Arvydas Gudas/Director Agnius Jankevičius

And in “Kankini” I already pay tribute to punk, post and alternative rock, I didn’t write the songs myself. We use 10’s rock and punk rock classics. Green Day’s superhit “Basket Case”, The Smashing Pumpkins’ “Bullet with Butterfly Wings”, etc

– Why exactly did the punk, rock aesthetics resonate in this material?

– “The Martyr” has been in my sights for a long time, and it was suitable for the new direction and guidelines of the theater management. I had the idea to include a school choir in the action. According to the play, these are school students, classmates of the main character.

Everything is very simple – I just read the play and listen to music while reading. It just went youtube is streamed and the Pink Floyd hit “We don’t need no education” popped up. I took a look, and in the clip the students are going to the meat grinder, I think, we need to make a chorus in the performance, it will be more fun.

I was thinking about a children’s choir, but I myself work as a pedagogue with second-year actors of the Lithuanian Academy of Music and Theater (LMTA), most of them have an absolute ear, play various instruments, their volcanic energy was ideal for “Kankini”.

Photo by Arvydas Gudas/From the rehearsal of the play “The Martyr”.

– Would it be possible to say that the play will basically not talk about religious extremism, but about religion as a certain form of protest by young people? Can you define the theme of the play?

– It is very difficult to speak before the performance is fully developed, because often it “tells” the theme itself. Yes, religion as an image, a motif in Mayenburg’s play occupies a lot of space, but is it religious extremism? I don’t think religious extremism is a very strong focus.

For me, “Martyr” is today’s reality, as an oxymoron, as some kind of kitsch. For example, when you go to a metal music concert, you don’t have to have any illusions that you will be able to have a normal conversation. You will need to shout.

The play has many references to coming-of-age literature – it has all the ingredients of a classic coming-of-age novel. Unhappy love, inferior family, complicated relationship with mother, trying to identify oneself in the community, i.e. in the classroom, a certain moment of rejection, intolerance of teachers, egocentrism of a teenager, etc. Basically, only radicalism can be born in such a soil. Religious, non-religious… In this case, religion, religious circumstances are only as a means, as a chosen form.

Photo by Arvydas Gudas/From the rehearsal of the play “The Martyr”.

There is a place in the play where the main character, Benjamin, says: “To what we Christians have fallen, other religions have their warriors, their martyrs, those who are ready to die. Is there at least one Christian now who could die for the fact that he believes?” This is how Benjamin creates the basis, tries to identify himself, to attract attention, because it’s really not like he intended to kill from the beginning.

The religion he relies on is, at first, just a way to survive. He is driven only by the interest to stand out, perhaps to impress the girl who rejected him, to attract the attention of his mother and classmates.

Feeling more and more in the role of a prophet, let’s call it a John the Baptist, he goes further – he comes to the conclusion that the Jews are to blame for everything, and more precisely, the Jewish teacher. And the final is still an open question for me in this aspect. I don’t know if he keeps raising his hand against her because of this, or if this is the end of the game.

Photo by Arvydas Gudas/From the rehearsal of the play “The Martyr”.

– What is the meaningful burden in the performance of the atheist, chemistry, biology, geography teacher Erika Rot, whose role is played by Yevgenija Gladij?

– It seems to me that Miss Roth and all the other characters live in a small, rather provincial corner, a town that is really boring. In Pagėgii, Molėtai, for example.

For some professionals, in this case educators, in such campuses, I imagine, very quickly the routine of doubt sets in, because there are no challenges. Because nothing special happens there. Everyday problems of ordinary teenagers that do not pose professional challenges.

And she, it seems to me, has the gene of an unfulfilled careerist. And the excess of Benjamin’s religious radicalism is enough for her to throw heavy artillery into the fight, it becomes an impulse. This is where her short-sightedness and careerist fanaticism are finally revealed.

– For the main role of Benjamin, you invited the actor of the VST troupe, Igor Abramović. What led to this decision?

– While watching the performance “Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are dead” at VST, I really liked Igor, I was impressed by his organic nature, acting in a duet with a partner. In general, the choice was determined by its relationship with the material.

Igor looks at almost everything very critically, he has his own opinion, which is very helpful for such a character. Then the space to look at everything satirically opens up automatically, the palette expands a lot. On the stage, his relationship with everything is at a distance, but he is willing, so he even exudes some German mood, lightness.

When we all read the play together for the first time, I immediately said – we need to do a black comedy, the room should be neon – like in Las Vegas, where there are “neon” churches and the like. All this panopticism is about serious things, but the style of country concerts, when it seems that absolutely everyone wants to escape from themselves.

Photo by Arvydas Gudas/From the rehearsal of the play “The Martyr”.

– Constantly return to modern dramaturgy, especially German. You staged the same M. von Mayenburg’s play “Stone” at the National Drama Theater in 2012. What causes such interest in contemporary authors?

– All the works of modern dramaturgy authors that I have staged are very different, especially the way of thinking of the authors. Perhaps the only thing that unites them is the mosaic, kaleidoscopic style of writing, the “smashing” of scenes into short, laconic fragments.

Let’s say Roland Schimmelpfennig – he seems to me to have come from the fairy tales of Scheherazade. A magical realist, as Rene Magritte is in art, so he is in literature. And Mayenburg is much drier, his play “The Stone” is perhaps not the greatest achievement in the overall context of his dramaturgy. However, even then, during rehearsals, it felt rather like a play written to order, for a very specific occasion.

And “Martyr” has many more ingredients to remain in the history of art. First of all, because the Bible, scripture quotes, and stories are used here.

In modern dramaturgy, there are three things that, if you bring them to the surface in one way or another, you will get one or another resonance all the time. Both among the creators and among the viewers. It’s politics, religion and sex. At all times, these have been the most timeless themes that will have great resonance.