DOCTOR AND MANGARYTA

In 2002 Šiauliai Drama Theatre produced the play Doctor and Mangaryta (Daktaras ir Mangaryta) directed by Landsbergis and based on the folk tales collected by the Lithuanian physician, folklorist and ethnographer Jonas Basanavičius. Witty episodes of the play are mixed with painful documentary situations telling the love story of Basanavičius and his wife Gabrielė Eleonora Mohl. In her review, theatrologist Daiva Šabasevičienė notes that Doctor and Mangaryta resurrects Basanavičius for a new life. “In essence, the play makes a statement that the great personality has never died. It’s just that we had staled his name and forgotten his true contribution. Landsbergis brings back the cheerful and dreary tales collected by Basanavičius as well as the personality itself, the ethnographer’s wife and their adorable love story.” The theatrologist points to the work of the director: “Without any stage gloss or technical tricks, he conjures an alchemical combination of these isolated worlds – the dead come back to life and die again, and the heaven and hell are adjacent to each other. Everything is happening at the same time – mischief and virtue, sin and penitence. Even a murderer wishes to go to heaven. The director neither condemns, nor pardons him, but allows him to sit on the threshold on Heaven and look at his former acquaintances. The success of the play is also ensured by Landsbergis’ superb sense of humour.” The play received the special prize of the Ministry of Culture for the Best Lithuanian Stage Production of the Year.