Kristina Steiblytė: The Guardian

What happens to a person when the familiar world loses its rules? Can a forest become a refuge for someone who has experienced abuse? Or is the forest itself a wounded being, searching for someone to hear its silence? “The Guardian” invites audiences on a journey through a forest where reality, myths and people’s inner experiences intertwine. Here, the forest is not merely a place of peace or refuge. It is a space marked by human activity—with clear-cut areas, scarred trees and traces of disappearing life. At the same time, it is a mysterious territory where familiar boundaries vanish and the possibility opens up of experiencing the world differently. At the centre of the performance is a young woman’s journey from a world permeated by control, power and manipulation into the forest. Here, two wounded beings meet: a human and nature. Their experiences begin to reflect one another, and their shared vulnerability becomes an opportunity to forge a new connection based not on force, but on sensitivity, attentiveness and empathy. The figure of the guardian also emerges on this journey: one who watches, bears witness, protects and remains alert between different worlds. But who is really protecting whom? Is the human protecting the forest, or the forest the human? Can the forest save us, or must we first dare to get lost in it in order to understand it? Playwright Kristina Steiblytė developed this play after winning the European Residency Programme competition organised by LNDT and its partners abroad, while undertaking residencies in Madrid, Zagreb, Brussels and Marseille.