FESTIVAL GOGOL FEST : Ukraine is the first foreign country that will enjoy the premiere Fantasio

The State Small Theatre of Vilnius arrives at the Ukrainian festival Gogol Fest with the premiere of the famous Lithuanian director Gabrielė Tuminaitė's Fantasio (based on the play Fantasio by Alfred de Musset). Ukraine is the first foreign country whose audience will enjoy the latest work of director Gabrielė Tuminaitė on September 17th. in the Olexandr Dovzhenko National centre.

The play Fantasio, written in the 19th century, appeared in its modern version on the stage: the creative team synchronized the content of the play with the contemporary context, found a creative relationship between the specific language of the work and the contemporary viewer coming to the theatre space today. The performance will include live music performed by Kabloonak group, complemented by the music of the well-known Lithuanian composer G. Puskunigis. The director, along with the choreographer Raidas Petrauskas, enriched the material of the performance with the Vogue dance style elements.

The play starts with the death of the kingdom’s fool and a wedding feat at the same time, in the attempt to avoid war with another kingdom. Rejected and redundant, Fantasio finds sense to his existence by becoming a fool of the king and changes the destiny of his kingdom. This play does not fit within classical definitions, because it's a comedy with a sad end, or a drama with a happy end. The plot of Fantasio resembles a fairy tale: the princess, who has to marry a designated prince, meets Fantasio – a charming, but poor common citizen. Fantasio is like a lifelike tale: it begins as a tale, but ends like life – not necessarily happy.

This performance is a tale with all characters that must be in the fairy tale: there is a princess, a prince, a king, and a fool. The prince seems to represent a real foolish but powerful force – if he does not like something, he is ready to proclaim a war to it. Within a second, he can turn a funny scene into tragedy. This character has matches in our lives, especially these days.

The performance is for young audience (not necessarily in terms of age, but rather in terms of spirit). Fantasio is a wanderer who cannot and does not want to belong to the “norm”, who will always be “defiant”: non-conformist, marginalized, undervalued, misunderstood, – different. Fantasio is a joker. You can laugh at his ideas but you will remember them, they will make their way into your head. Fantasio is something that does not exist, a certain fiction that stirs up well-established, swampy lives. Fantasio is a celebration of meeting, when it simply feels good to be together, to talk to each other, to philosophize without thinking about acting.

Gabrielė Tuminaitė's Fantasio was born in a non-traditional space, in the repository of the theatre decorations, but will be transferred to the stage, will maintain a performative atmosphere, an open, improvised performance of the work.

Fantasio is the latest performance of the State Small Theatre of Vilnius. The theatre offers more than 20 performances. The theatre itself has been in existence for 27 years, it was born in the same year and even in the same month as the restoration of the independent Republic of Lithuania (1990). It is the youngest Lithuanian state theatre, with three generations of one theatre school, making it unique. In all these years, the State Small Theatre of Vilnius has been traveling a lot; organizing the debut author festival Tylos! (Silence!), and constantly looking for opportunities for cooperation and co-productions with creators from different countries of the world.

The Vilnius Small Theatre was founded by world-renowned and well-known director Rimas Tuminas. This summer, in the honour of director R.Tuminas, a star was unveiled in Romania, in the Alley of Fame of one of the most famous theatrical festivals – the Sibiu International Theatre Festival.

Performances of Vilnius Small Theatre were demonstrated to the audiences of the US, UK, Germany, Israeli, Italy, Greece, Georgia and China. From this autumn, this list will be complemented with Ukraine where the State Small Theatre of Vilnius presents a manifesto of a living, thoughtful, free man – Fantasio by Alfredo de Musset.  After the performance, Kabloonak's live concert will continue the night (http://bit.ly/2eTda2R).

The venue of the Gogol Fest and performance Fantasio (The State Small Theatre of Vilnius)

Kyiv, Vasylkivska str 1, Olexandr Dovzhenko National centre

For more information: 

http://www.gogolfest.org.ua/ukr/programm/2035