Mistras

Marius Ivaškevičius’s *Mistras*, like his legendary play *Madagascar*, invites us to look at famous historical figures in an unconventional way and to reflect without clichés on Lithuanian national identity. At the centre of the play are the life and fate of Adam Mickiewicz, as well as the search for a “true” hero whom we consciously or perhaps unconsciously long for today. The action takes place in Paris in the 1840s. Here, an image emerges of “exotic” Lithuania—a country where “everything is still confused, not yet crystallised: Russia, within it Poland, within Poland Lithuania, and within it vessels waiting to explode”; a country where people raise a glass and wish one another to “rise again in literature,” and where “all lands are equally foreign.” As in *Madagascar*, the characters here are also obsessed with utopian ideas and projects, and with the mania of creating theories that astonish through their originality. Mistras is the Lithuanian landowner Andrzej Towiański, who proclaimed himself a prophet and the Lord’s representative on Earth, and founded a sect in Paris called “The Cause of God.” His mystical ideas completely captivate the ageing Adam Mickiewicz, who is searching for meaning in life and creative renewal, but ultimately ruin the great poet. Rimas Tuminas’s production, full of enchanting images and immersing the audience in a dense theatrical atmosphere, encompasses even more.