Mommys I February 24th

Projects: Past

After a 30-year break, Klaipėda Jewish Theater Šatil has been revived, and on February 24 will invite Vilnius residents and city guests to the premiere – performance “Mommy”. The performance will take place at Vilnius Theater “Lele”. In 2018, the performance was presented at the prestigious international festival “Theatrical Baltic”, and also became the laureate of the well-known Lithuanian amateur theater festival “Reflections”.

“The rebirth of “Shatil Theater” undoubtedly has a positive effect on the level of culture of Lithuania as a whole. In the play “Mamytė”, the subject should not leave the people of Vilnius indifferent, so I invite you to visit the premiere and I am sure you will not regret it,” says Feliksas Puzemski, Chairman of the Klaipėda Jewish Community.

This play is not about politics – it’s about love. About the infinite love of mothers of their sons. A great son’s love for his moms. About friendship, about compassion, about having someone to stop the war is only for women, mothers, because they can’t bury their children. A play about how to survive and survive, how not to fall into domestic nationalism, how to rise above hate and see the Light even where it is almost gone.

Events are happening nowadays, in Ukraine, where the most real war is taking place and everything is intertwined in this vortex: pain, fear, love, attachment. During the bombing three women, three girlfriends, are sitting in the old cellar. This is the Ukrainian Oksana, Russian Natasha and the Jewish Sonia. Together they grew up in one street, were inseparable friends, raised their sons, but in 2014 the war started and everything turned upside down. The town where the girlfriends lived was in the war zone. At the time of the fires they hid in an old but solid basement built by Oksana’s grandfather. The cellar was adapted to live for a while. When the war began, the uncooperative friends began to get angry because Saško, son of Oksana, wrote to serve the Ukrainian army, and Natasha’s son moved to the other side of the barricade.

Perhaps the three girlfriends would be the enemies, if not love each other, the children raised together and the Motherland. Ukraine – their common Motherland and what is happening there is terrible and not very well understood by ordinary people, mothers who raised their children, brought up their children, hoped for a calm old age, and are now forced to give them to war. And the heart hurts every mother the same, as Sonia says: ̤ “It is our boys, our sons, your children, Lord! Cheat and have mercy! Let their hands tremble when the weapons are directed to each other … ”

And it is very symbolic that the first performance of Klaipėda residents in the capital will take place at the “Dolls” Theater in Arklių g. 5, a building that occupies an exceptional place in the history of Lithuanian Jews. It is directly related to the horror and tragedies of the Lithuanian Holocaust. During World War II, the Jewish theater was located in the territory of the Vilnius Ghetto and operated here until 1943. It is symbolic that after many years in the theater scene, which has become an invisible testimony of the tragic events of Lithuanian history, the Jewish culture is revived and presented to the public.

The performance will take place on February 24th. (Sunday) 18:30 at Vilnius Theater Lėlė (Arklių g.5)
Director Nerijus Gedminas
Roles play:
Sonia – Maja Tarachovskaya,
Natalia – Elena Kogan,
Oksana – Irina Alexeyenko.
Scenography – Ilya Kogan.

You can buy tickets at: https://bit.ly/2TuwaV0