Vilnius Puppet Theatre LĖLĖ starts its new 67th season with intensive work. One of them is a huge challenge that is completely new for the theatre - the Baltic Visual Theatre Showcase, which will take place from 13-15 September. This biennial rotating festival aims to present contemporary visual performing arts from Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. The idea of the project, which was conceived in 2018, was successfully realised for the first time in 2022 in Tallinn, Estonia. The organisers of the showcase are Vilnius Puppet Theatre, Tallinn State Youth Theatre and Latvian Puppet Theatre.

According to Vilmantas Juškėnas, one of the festival’s artistic directors, "The aim of this festival is to focus on the Baltic context, to present the uniqueness of this region and, of course, to promote cooperation between our closest neighbours. Given today’s geopolitical context, we, the representatives of the puppet theatres of the three Baltic States, would especially like to have some kind of entity of our own, which could draw the attention not only of each other, but also of the more Western-oriented countries to our region’s culture, uniqueness and history... Experts from different countries (Finland, Denmark, Sweden, Germany, France, France, UK, etc.) are coming to this festival: representatives of festivals and media, theatre producers, critics. Therefore, concentrating such a diverse programme of visual theatre in one place can open up wider opportunities for each theatre to collaborate and participate in other international festivals..."

The programme of the Baltic Visual Theatre Showcase is very diversified. It will present ten quite different works for both children and adults, in terms of form, scope and themes, coming from different theatres in Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia: Vilnius Puppet Theatre, Kaunas State Puppet Theatre, Klaipėda Puppet Theatre, Table Theatre, Estonian Youth Theatre, Latvian Puppet Theatre, Cēsis Small Theatre and Ģertrūdes ielas teātris Theatre. Among the directors of the visiting works, such famous names as Erik Alalooga - Estonian performance director, performer and sound artist, Estonian director and choreographer Renate Keerd, chief director of the Latvian Puppet Theatre Edgars Kaufeldsas, Lithuanian director, artist, puppeteer Gintarė Radvilavičiūtė and others. Most of the works brought in do not fit into the traditional, classical definition of puppet theatre, but all of them are united by the desire to communicate in the universal language of visual theatre. The festival features puppets and objects, physical and non-verbal theatre performances that speak about the beauty of friendship, love and nature, as well as the darkest sides of humanity.

The Baltic Visual Theatre Showcase will present and reflect on contemporary visual theatre not only with a programme of ten performances, but also with three lectures on the concept of this type of performing art and its latest trends. Madli Pesti, a theatre scholar at the Estonian Academy of Music and Theatre, and Marzenna Wiśniewska, a professor at the Nicolaus Copernicus University, will present the processes taking place in the neighbouring countries and the issues that are of interest to creators and researchers of visual theatre. And Cariad Astles, a lecturer at the Central School of Oratory and Drama, University of London, who teaches puppetry and research puppetry as identity, applied puppetry and the politics of puppetry, will offer a more global context for contemporary visual theatre in her lecture.

The festival will take place in various venues in Vilnius: the stage and courtyard of the Vilnius Lėlė Theatre, the New Stage of the Lithuanian National Drama Theatre, Lukiškės Prison, the Vilnius House of Polish Culture, the art space at Vileišio18, etc. Most of the performances will be performed without words or in English, while the rest will be performed with Lithuanian and English subtitles.

Festival programme 

The festival is partly financed by the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Lithuania.

Vilnius Puppet Theatre info.