Orpheus

In 2025, the production “Orpheus” was nominated for two Golden Stage Crosses, in the categories of Best Technology Design and Best Music. Žilvinas Vingelis’s director’s concept, based on Jean Cocteau’s play “Orpheus,” won the 2023 “DramaTest” competition organised by VMT.

The production “Orpheus” is based on a play by Jean Cocteau (1889–1963), one of the most prominent figures in French cultural life in the first half of the 20th century. Written nearly a hundred years ago, it nevertheless explores themes that remain just as relevant and important today. According to director Ž. Vingelis, it is a kind of fairy tale for adults about dreams and reality, relationships and family, and careerism overshadowing them: “Cocteau acts here like a careful juggler, creating a world without a single truth, where dreams turn into reality once again.”

“Orpheus” (1925) was not only J. Cocteau’s first major work for the theatre, but also his first attempt to engage with the figure of Orpheus, the mythical Greek singer. The subject stayed with him throughout his career, including in his later, widely known film trilogy: “The Blood of a Poet” (1930), “Orpheus” (1950) and “The Testament of Orpheus” (1960), for which Cocteau wrote the screenplays and directed the films.

The play is set in the home of Orpheus and Eurydice, a young couple living in Thrace, which clearly takes on the character of 1920s Paris. The audience is transported to an art deco setting that is both aesthetic and steeped in mysticism, filled with the soundscape created by composer Andrius Šiurys from various objects on stage.

Orpheus is a stream-of-consciousness surrealist poet striving to write a brilliant poem for a poetry competition aimed at mass popularity. His creative method is to interrogate the horse that has taken up residence in his home, hoping to reinvent poetry itself. Meanwhile, forgotten and rejected, Eurydice finds comfort in the company of Ertebiz, a glazier. It soon becomes clear, however, that neither Ertebiz nor the horse is what they seem…

The play’s plot brings together traditions of classical theatre, surrealism, Dadaism and the visual arts. Here, says director Ž. Vingelis, reality mingles with dreams, and the central themes unfold: life and death, creative ambition and personal happiness. The play’s artistic and cultural significance is undeniable, yet it has rarely been staged in the history of Lithuanian theatre. It is important to note that Lithuanian audiences are finally being presented with a revised and updated translation of the play, no longer affected by Soviet censorship.

Today, Jean Cocteau would probably be described as an interdisciplinary artist. According to The National Observer, among “a generation of artists whose courage gave birth to all of 20th-century art, J. Cocteau was closest to a Renaissance man.” He tried his hand at many professions: writer, poet, playwright, artist, screenwriter, film director, graphic designer, pianist, interior and fashion designer, creator of sculptures and surrealist objects, and even music and boxing manager. The production features three