Theatre Performance: Small Marital Crimes

Love detective Gilles wakes up in hospital with his head bandaged and amnesia. A beautiful woman comes to his room and claims that she is Lisa, his wife, and that Gilles is her husband. Lisa takes Gilles home and begins telling him the story of their life together, which he cannot remember at all! Thus begins an intellectual duel between the two, a labyrinth of relationships and a trap of memories. Which of them is lying? Or are they both? The longer they talk, the more layers emerge: tenderness turns threatening, and humour becomes a veiled attack. Their dialogue plays out like a chess game, with the truth changing with every sentence. What is love? Can it be rebuilt? Perhaps marriage is a creative process in which spouses seek to remake one another? Or perhaps it is an alliance of killers? Shmitt combines philosophical questions with domestic details, skillfully balancing erotic playfulness, black humour and psychological intrigue.

Director OLEGAS ŠAPOŠNIKOVAS (LV), also a professional psychologist, creates stage action that is deeply grounded and motivated. The charismatic duo of actors VALDA BIČKUTĖ and VYTAUTAS RUMŠAS (jun.) convincingly conveys the characters’ complex experiences. Set designer MARIJUS JACOVSKIS and costume designer JUOZAS VALENTA have created a space that is recognisable yet aesthetically stylised.

Based on Éric – Emmanuel Shmitt’s “SMALL MARITAL CRIMES”