Treading the Borderline: Play(ing) with Reality on the Post-Soviet Lithuanian Theatre Stage

Duringthesecond decadeof theIndependence, i.e. at thebeginningof thetwenty-first centurythe increasing number of performances trying to escape the tradition of anti-mimeticrepresentation and to re-engage with reality appeared on the Lithuanian theatre stage.Fragments of everyday reality, ?real?personalities onstage, autobiographic narratives, historicdocuments, authentic spaces were becoming increasingly popular, allowing some critics toproclaim theeagerly awaited ?return to realism?. However, acloser analysisof thistendency ofcontemporary Lithuanian theatre can lead one to believe that such performances do notdemonstratetheurgeto return to thetraditional notion of realist representation, but rather toplayfully flirt with reality and its reception in the fictional world of theatre. In the light oftheoretical and practical revisions of the concepts of reality and its representation, youngLithuanian theatrecreatorsarenot somuch interested in truthful representation of reality, butrather in a performative investigation of processes of representation and their effects onaudience perception. One might add that while engaging with the codes of reality or ?real?material onstage, contemporary Lithuanian artists try to dismantle the binary oppositionbetween realistic representation and anti-realistic playfulness, which dominated the symbolicmentality of modern Lithuanian theatre. Various forms of playing with reality and fiction onthe Lithuanian theatre stage, their underlying principles and wider cultural implications ofsuch games are the object of investigation of this article. A comparative analysis ofperformances from Lithuania and Estonia will help to highlight the specific character ofLithuanian theatre as well as to define the patterns of playing with reality present on thepost-Soviet Lithuanian stage