Trukdis

“Trukdis” — what happens when a person begins to follow their sensitivity and intuition in a world where everything has its own rules, clear expectations and principles for being? This is the question raised by one of the most prominent and compelling theatre directors of the younger generation, Justinas Vinciūnas, who in 2025 received the Golden Stage Cross for Best Emerging Artist. His creative career includes two productions based on the work of Nobel Prize in Literature laureates, a production based on African drama, and a work based on a journalistic chronicle.

The production was developed through research into the life of one of the most distinctive voices in Danish literature, Tove Ditlevsen, and motifs from her novel Faces (1968). These elements served as the creative starting point, their themes shaping the dramatic backbone of the production.

At the centre of the action is Lisė Mundus, an artist exhausted by the reality around her. Feeling that the world surrounding her is beginning to sway and, in its concreteness, approach the edge of absurdity, Lisė starts looking for a crack—a space where the strain of “being someone” gives way to a longed-for calm: being enough, without constant judgment or the pressure of another person’s consciousness. But every step towards freedom comes at a cost. And most often, that cost is the person beside you.

In this production, the novel’s characters gain sovereignty: they are no longer bound by the plot of Faces, finding themselves in different situations or sharing thoughts that the novel seems to leave unspoken. The production is therefore built around play, in which a character goes beyond the limits of their own words. The novel’s autobiographical nature also blurs the boundary between its author and the character she creates. This became a cornerstone of the production, where the boundary between character and performer is visibly undefined.

These principles invite the creation of a strange theatrical language, modelled almost entirely on everyday situations, which seems to invite us to see the longing for freedom concealed beneath apparent reality. “Trukdis” invites the audience to discuss: what price does loyalty to the principles of one’s personal truth carry? Is trusting one’s sensitivity a creative or a destructive force? And, finally, might what seems like an impediment within us be an opportunity to rekindle the passion for life we lost somewhere along the way?