Darius Meškauskas: “What we show on stage is only a provocation of the viewer’s imagination” | Culture

D. Meškauskas, who was met before the rehearsal, shared the feeling of the upcoming performance, the guidelines for its thematic path. The actor did not talk about the character, the depths of his personality, but about the ideas he conveys. Not by chance. According to D. Meškauskas, the questions raised by “Requiem” itself call us to turn our gaze away from ourselves to the terrifying distance.

– Last year you created a play with D. Krymov practically without a text, this time there is one. Maybe you can share what impression you had after reading “Requiem”?

– It is very fragmentary, consisting of separate parts arranged in a dramatic manner. A fragment of Shakespeare’s “Hamlet” is inserted in the middle of the play – the parting scene between Hamlet and Ophelia. Also one story line from H. Murakami’s novel, it’s about a teacher and an interrogator who meet because of an incident during the war.

But probably the most important thing here is the theme itself, or the feeling of the theme. Until the performance is done, it is difficult to fully name it, but we can already talk about a certain line of thinking, a feeling.

– While presenting the upcoming play, the director said that “Requiem” is for children, born and unborn. How do you interpret this description?

– I think it reflects the general atmosphere of our time – the question, what’s next? Due to some political insights, people who have believed in various false ideologies seem to no longer think about the future. The negative energy inside us, our traumas, failures – all this accumulates and finally materializes in various excesses, finds a way to sneak out and manifest itself in the most crooked expressions of modern life. Children are the future, so what kind of world are we leaving for them?

Dom Rimeika’s photo/Dmitrijus Krymovs in the Klaipėda Drama Theater

As for my character, I am a military man, I operate at the language level of documents and data collection, while the teacher (actor S. Pinaitytė) talks about feelings, about duty, guilt, about ephemeral things. Our particular conflict in the scene comes from the fact that I have to write something in a report about an obscure event, but she tells about her fate, her relationship with her children. And after all, the concrete, pragmatic approach to problems and their solutions, which we value so much, does not take into account the spiritual world at all. Therein lies the conflict.

In the finale, after many years, my character returns to the same classroom, the teacher planted a certain doubt in him about the value of the material world.

As for Shakespeare – with him everything starts from some mystical moment – a comet fell and everything started, or there was a duel between Hamlet’s father and Fortinbras, Hamlet’s father won and according to the codes of human laws everything is legal. But after all, God said “do not kill” and this is a completely different category, so fate takes revenge on Hamlet’s entire family. It ends up like Sodom and Gomorrah, the empty place is filled by others and we learn nothing from it.

There are no great atrocities in this performance, the only value is the future. She is our children and the world we leave for them. What do we leave behind? A list of laws that have nothing to do with spiritual things, that are dry and deal with small, local problems of the present time.

Photo by Dom Rimeika/”Requiem” rehearsal

– Combining H. Murakami and Shakespeare is an unexpected combination. How do you feel about such different sources overlapping in one performance?

– After taking a certain topic, sit in the library and pull the arguments you need from the most diverse shelves. In this case, the director is at the center of his creative universe, surrounded by many things that he can use to tell a story. The wider your personal library, the more you can learn.

Art needs a recipient. One poet has said that the reader is the co-author. The viewers of the show are also our co-authors. The wider their knowledge of art and culture, the wider the field of associations they will see and the greater satisfaction you will have.

– As the audience of his first performance in Klaipėda already managed to see, D. Krymov creates somewhat dreamlike, somewhat surreal stage worlds, it seems that alternative laws of space or time operate in them. How does such an environment work?

– It broadens the field of perception. D. Krymov leads the viewer to follow him, thinks about what he will feel, and then turns him in a completely different direction and surprises him. The viewer sits in amazement. It’s like poetry. After all, poetry is a feeling of wonder.

I think this is where the director’s professionalism lies, he is able to organize the viewer’s thoughts and manipulate his imagination. In this way, the theater really happens in the mind of the viewer. What we show on stage is just a provocation of his imagination.

– How does such an unconventional stage environment affect you, an actor?

– You need to understand the rules of the game and play. That is creativity. The most important thing is to understand the function of your character. So, in terms of Requiem, I wouldn’t say that the roles are written out in a very dramatic way, it will be the whole that matters here. General impression. I think that the initial education of the director also influences this path of the work – he is an artist, a representative of abstract thinking. He thinks in images.

Photo by Dom Rimeikas/Darius Meškauskas

– However, your character is quite specific – an interrogator interrogating a teacher in Japan. It’s a world away for us, or were you looking for some specific representation of this power structure employee characterization in preparation?

– Our segment is set in Japan, but the interrogator is American. He is the representative of laws and regulations, and they operate on a similar principle everywhere. The meeting between him and the teacher is interesting. She tells him things she doesn’t understand herself. The interrogator must find the answers himself. What are you ready for – these are the answers. He fails and that meeting stays with him for the rest of his life.

– Secret is a condition of truth?

There are things we don’t know, we don’t understand, but we sense. Human feelings – whether it is love or friendship – all this is not concrete, some kind of ether in which we live. But sometimes, at critical moments, that intangible world condenses and can materialize. Maybe we see ourselves as complete and final. But we really don’t know everything about ourselves.

Requiem premieres on May 11, 12 and 15.