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, John Cassavetes’s intimate cinematic language, and Kazys Boruta’s novella “Baltaragis’ Mill,” the production tells a story about the influence of collective myths on our identities.

Playwright and director Naubertas Jasinskas: “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 reenactment of the film 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 cultivating a dangerous relationship with memory. The desire to recreate, remake, and return becomes a safe zone where one can avoid real questions about the present.”

In the production, fairy tale and reality intertwine into a single whole: the old story of Jurga, Girdvainis, Baltaragis, Uršulė, and Pinčiukas is transported into the world of today’s music industry, rehearsals, and concerts. Here, the characters are both mythical archetypes and reflections of contemporary people. The story is constructed through the perspective of young Jurga. The world she once wanted to conquer is growing empty, and pleasure no longer fills it. Her father, Baltaragis, owner of a music business, tries to maintain control; her beloved Girdvainis finds himself at a moral crossroads; and Uršulė is a figure of perpetual striving and failure, whose unfulfillment 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 devil’s cunning, the 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 fulfillment 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 mismatch 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.

Excerpts from the recording of 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 Bingel.