The Girl with a Rifle

This is the story of a girl named Magdė, whose parents and entire family were deported to Siberia at the end of the Second World War, when the Russians arrived after the Germans had withdrawn. With the help of her teacher, who is also a partisan, the girl takes shelter in a bunker and becomes a partisan herself, saving more than one person’s life. The story is based on the memories of witnesses and freedom fighters from that time, historical material, and an account by a former partisan courier about a girl who lived with partisans in a bunker for a while. This play is therefore about the courage of the most vulnerable—children—in critical situations, and their instinct to survive. Despite its difficult personal experiences and historical context, the story remains warm and witty. As an adult, Magdė confesses to a carved Rūpintojėlis figure that she is a terrible coward. Yet, without knowing what partisans or bunkers are, she bravely embraces her new reality and the unknown. After all, courage does not mean being unafraid. It means facing your fear and taking action. The action-filled play preserves the book’s witty tone, as Magdė herself and her Teacher, the only two survivors of the bunker’s destruction, recount the events they remember. The audience become characters and help tell this compelling story of survival. “Both the composer and I grew up listening to our parents’ stories about our partisan grandparents, so the subject is very personal. I imagine there is no family in Lithuania untouched by war—by deportations or attempts to resist. In the context of today’s world, these stories need to be told again and again, because listening to them reminds us once more that it is worth defending our values even against a much stronger enemy, because today we are free,” says the play’s director.