Molly Sweeney

“Learning to see is not the same as learning a new language. It is like learning to speak for the very first time.” — Denis Diderot

In “Molly Sweeney,” a play by Brian Friel, a classic of modern Irish drama, the lives and relationships of three people unfold. The production explores the freedom to be oneself and the fragile boundary between care and manipulation. In Molly’s imagination, past and present intermingle, and “in the darkness of the eyes, in the light of the heart,” a unique experience of the world is born.

Blind since childhood, Molly lives in a harmonious world of her own until her husband, Frank, and an eye surgeon, Mr. Rice, decide to restore her sight. What is reality, and do we all see it in the same way? How much are our choices truly our own? Do we have the right to reshape another person’s identity? The masterfully written play “Molly Sweeney” invites us into sensitive self-reflection about who we are and how much we allow others to change us.

According to director G. Padegimas, this production is in a sense tailored specifically to these actors of the State Šiauliai Drama Theatre: Monika Šaltytė, Aidas Matutis and Dalius Jančiauskas. Their creative individuality becomes no less important in the production than the play itself.

Gytis Padegimas is one of Lithuania’s most prominent theatre directors. He has created 124 productions in Lithuania and abroad; his 125th, “Molly Sweeney,” marks an important anniversary: 50 years since his first production was staged in Šiauliai. In 1976, on the same stage, G. Padegimas made his debut with a production of F. G. Lorca’s play “Doña Rosita the Spinster, or The Language of Flowers.”

Premiere: May 29, 30 and 31, 2026.