Reception of Lithuanian drama in Estonia.

The article has two aims: (1) to give a statistical overview of Lithuanian drama published and staged in Estonia, and (2) to investigate the reception of Lithuanian drama in Estonia, relying on close reading of the plays and analysis of audiovisual recordings and criticism, and interpreting the sources in the Estonian cultural context. The term “reception” here covers the creative work of translators, directors, actors, scenographers, etc., as well as diverse mental activities of readers and spectators. The first part of the article tackles the historical development of cultural relations between Estonia and Lithuania in the field of theatre, listing the Lithuanian plays published and staged in Estonia during different epochs and contextualizing the reception. In the second part, the plays of four influential playwrights are analyzed: works by Juozas Grušas, Kazys Saja, Justinas Marcinkevičius and Marius Ivaškevičius. There are approximately forty Lithuanian plays translated into Estonian, most of them by Mihkel Loodus. Twenty plays have been staged in professional theatres, and twenty have been published, although some are still in manuscript. There are three groups of plays translated into Estonian: (1) plays depicting Soviet society, staged in Estonia in the second half of the 1950s and in the first half of the 1960s, 2) plays depicting Lithuanian history, mostly published as books, and 3) existential plays that form the majority of Lithuanian drama in Estonian