Naubertas Jasinskas: The Devil’s Bride

“The Devil’s Bride” is a musical drama about eternity and indifference. Inspired by Arūnas Žebriūnas and Vyacheslav Ganelin’s musical film, actress Vaiva Mainelytė’s life story, the intimate cinematic language of John Cassavetes, and Kazys Boruta’s novella “Baltaragis’ Mill,” the production tells a story about the influence of collective myths on our identities.

The production’s playwright and director, Naubertas Jasinskas, says: “We are creating an entirely new interpretation of ‘The Devil’s Bride’—this will not be a new staging of Boruta’s work or a film adaptation with young actors. The production asks whether reconstruction is a love of the past or an inability to create and live in the present. The work is relevant today because we live in a culture obsessed with reconstructions, thereby fostering a dangerous relationship with memory. The desire to restore, remake, and return becomes a safe zone in which we can avoid real questions about the present.”

In the production, fairy tale and reality intertwine. The old story of Jurga, Girdvainis, Baltaragis, Uršulė, and Pinčiukas is transposed into the contemporary world of the music industry, rehearsals, and concerts. Here, the characters are both mythical archetypes and reflections of people today. The story is constructed from the perspective of young Jurga. The world she once longed to conquer is growing empty, and pleasure no longer fills it. Her father Baltaragis, the owner of a music business, tries to maintain control; her beloved Girdvainis finds himself at a moral crossroads; and Uršulė is a figure of repeated attempts and failure, whose unfulfilled life becomes a warning to Jurga. The producer (Pinčiukas) also enters the action, reminding us that fame and success always come at a price. In contrast to the devilish cunning, an Angel and Vaiva Mainelytė appear throughout the work; their dialogues become a reflection on human life, its meaning, and the balance between good and evil.

Inspired by various sources, “The Devil’s Bride” consists of two parts. In the first, the audience is immersed in the memory of the legendary film “The Devil’s Bride”—which becomes not only a staged act of reconstruction but also an aging actress’s inner memory, longing, and dream. Reflections on indifference lead into the second part: a concert in which we see not the fulfilment promised by a cultural myth, but its collapse. The second part shows that the long-awaited “they lived happily ever after” never came. This is a contemporary reflection on the power of time, the discrepancy between memory and reality, and the painful necessity of looking at myth without romanticized longing.

The production is a coproduction of LNDT and MMLAB theatres.

* The production is funded by the Lithuanian Council for Culture, Vilnius City Municipality, and the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Lithuania.

Fragments of the recording from the film “The Devil’s Bride” are heard in the production, performed by: Jurga – Asta Chomentauskienė; Pinčiukas – Jonas Rupša; Girdvainis – Vytautas Kernagis; Baltaragis – Viktoras Malinauskas; Marcelė – Tatjana Čiumičeva; Uršulė – Birutė Dambrauskaitė; Anupras Visgirda; Raupys – Alfonsas Vaškevičius. Kaunas State Choir, led by Petras Bingelis.