Eglė Švedkauskaitė: FOSSILIA

Inspired by Dalia Grinkevičiūtė’s work *Lithuanians by the Laptev Sea*, a Son studying film abroad is given an assignment to create a documentary portrait. With some hesitation, he chooses his own family as its subjects: his Mother, Father and Sister. When he returns to his native Kaunas, a real treasure awaits him: a museum employee invites the family to see a manuscript of his Father’s aunt’s memories of exile in Siberia, recently discovered in the garden of his grandparents’ house. The young man gradually begins to explore not only the manuscript, which lay underground for fifty years, but also his family’s past, and to understand how it shapes the family’s relationships in the present.

Although E. Švedkauskaitė creates a fictional family for the characters in the play, she also draws on real events: in 1991, a jar was accidentally unearthed at 60 Perkūno Avenue in Žaliakalnis, Kaunas. Inside were loose pages containing Dalia Grinkevičiūtė’s memories of Siberia. The manuscript had been considered lost, as Grinkevičiūtė herself had tried to find it several decades earlier but failed. Dalia Grinkevičiūtė’s work is not only one of the most affecting works of Lithuanian literature and part of the school curriculum, but has also been translated into fifteen languages. It is a remarkable work of art about preserving humanity in inhuman conditions, or, in the author’s own words, a “monument to the victims of the North.”

“I called the play *Fossilia*, thinking about everything that is unearthed in the context of the work—not only the jar containing the manuscript, but also the characters’ feelings and thoughts. In this play, we seek to portray a young person’s need to ask their parents about family history and to examine the experiences of the older generation. The stage action is driven by a young creator representing the so-called therapeutic generation, which is eager to talk things through and ‘resolve’ relationships, and to feel the security that knowledge provides. It is probably quite natural that those of us who grew up in a world of open sharing, democracy and technology ask questions, but questions about the past and attempts to judge it often turn into confrontation. The relationship with parents is very important in this play. It is also important that young people take an interest in exile—not as a museum exhibit, but because they want to understand how they themselves would act in such a situation, and whether they could survive,” says the play’s director and dramaturg, Eglė Švedkauskaitė.

The play is funded by the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Lithuania. It is part of the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Lithuania’s Culture Pass programme.