Theatre Utopia (Lithuania) - „DECALOGUE (Ten Commandments)“

By Gintaras Varnas and Audronis Liuga

Director: Gintaras Varnas
Set Design: Marta Vosyliūtė
Costumes:  Jolanta RimkutÄ—
Composer: Giedrius Puskunigis
Lighting: Simas Sirutavičius
Sound: Giedrius Puskunigis
Cast: Ainis Storpirštis, Dovydas Stončius, ElzÄ— GudavičiÅ«tÄ—, Emilija LatÄ—naitÄ—-BeliauskienÄ—, EglÄ— ŠpokaitÄ—, Marius Repšys, Vidas Bareikis, Vainius Sodeika.

„The production “The Ten Commandments” is based on the themes of these biblical laws. Eight young actors in the performance open up through their own experience and considerations and talk about the spiritual state of their contemporaries – their anxiety, circumstances in which they make certain moral choices, their quest for the truth, the concept of conscience, which today is often forgotten...

“At first the actors created lots of plastic and straightforwards études, which directly illustrated the truths of the Ten Commandments. Later they came to understand that the Ten Commandments are everywhere: in every step, in every situation of life, and also, in every play,” director Gintaras Varnas talks about the circumstances of how the production came about. “This discovery in the creative process of the young actors, that the Ten Commandments are not just an empty, written code of morals, but a real practice of life encountered in every step, has set the special shape of the performance.”

The performance consists of painful encounters between the characters of “The Ten Commandments” and the faces of a lost God, which are often introduced humorously and wittily, applying the insights of a young person. The characters talk in natural speech,sometimes employing the street slang: but beneath the spoken style there lie poetry and philosophical level – which is easily recognised by and understood by the contemporary generation.

“The director Gintaras Varnas for his productions of the 2008 (operas “The Duel of Tankredi and Clorinda”, “The Dance of the Ungrateful” and performance “The Ten Commandments”) has received the Golden Cross of the Stage as Director of the Year.
The cast of the production for “The Ten Commandments” have also been awarded the Golden Cross of the Stage in 2008 in the category of National Drama (“Utopia” theatre troup).

Duration of the play 2 hours and 30 minutes
Premiere was 2008