INTIMATE CONFESSION

In 2003 Landsbergis directed the play Intimate Confession (Intymi išpažintis) in Šiauliai Drama Theatre based on the works of Ingmar Bergman. It tells a story of a woman who “transforms as a chameleon – she is a tender and nostalgic daughter in the episode with a dead but still beloved father, an intoxicated aristocrat suppressing her anger in a charity ball, a touchingly naïve girl remembering her childhood and her mother’s indifference, a woman playing brave when “speaking” with her husband Alfred, a sophisticated schemer in a mental institution, a lustful temptress who in a moment becomes fearful of her own intentions to copulate with a random stranger met at a resort, and a calm dreamer playing with a cornelian rock…” (Gasparas Aleksa). The main character of Bergman’s A Spiritual Matter, Victoria, is played by Olita Dautartaitė. The play is enriched with poems by Kornelijus Platelis. According to the director, the mission and the essence of the play lie in the openness of the text “which – sometimes dreadfully – fills Bergman’s works and which is so much needed by Lithuanians positioned at the top of world suicide rates”. Landsbergis explains: “There is no such thing as ugly life, and all of our mistakes are beautiful if one can contemplate and deplore them – this is the only way to move on. The character created by Olita Dautartaitė reminds of the evangelical Mary of Magdala – she couldn't have become a saint without drowning in sin first. Great penitence is always more valuable than a life of an arrogant prude.”