One-act performance based on the letters and works of Lithuanian writer JONAS BILIUNAS (1879-1907) and his wife JULIJA JANULAITYTE-BILIUNIENE (1880-1978)
Author and Director – BIRUTE MAR
Scenographer – INDRE PACESAITE
Performed by ALEKSAS KAZANAVICIUS and BIRUTE MAR
Violinist – SIGITAS RUBIS
Duration: 1 hour.
It is a renewed performance of
the Solo Theatre in 2019 (previously created and performed at the State Youth
Theatre of Lithuania).
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The performance “He and She” is based on the postcards of the Lithuanian classic writer Jonas Biliunas (1879-1907) and his beloved and future wife, doctor Julija.
Jonas Biliunas and Julija Janulaityte met eachover while they were still high school students in Siauliai, later Jonas studied literature in Leipzig, Julija majored in dentistry in Kharkov. Immediately after their wedding, J. Biliunas discovered that he is suffering from an incurable disease called tuberculosis, then went to Zurich for a treatment, and later to Zakopane. There he died, he was only 26 years old. The surviving postcards of loved ones sent to each other from Kharkov, Anyksciai, Leipzig, Berlin, Zurich, Zakopane still excites us a century later with their purity, sincerity, vibration of love which only lasted a few years. Inspired by this extraordinary love, the writer Jonas Biliunas created a series of sensitive short stories and poems that have become classics of Lithuanian literature.
Birute Mar:
“Indeed, this story is the Lithuanian story of Romeo and Juliet which we wanted to resurrect on stage and to re-establish as a surviving old photograph in which Jonas and Julija pondered at the table. I wanted to bring back those subtle vibrations that emerge from the works of J. Biliunas and the love letters.”
“They both lived far away from each other; neither of them knew about the other for many years, even though the two lived together in the same world. When they finally met… Both were surprised to see each other; the hearts trembled in one blink of an eye. They both seemed to have long known each other and that they had already seen one another. And they both gave each other a hand…”
– extract from the short story “He and She” by Jonas Biliunas
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The performance “HE AND SHE” was presented to Lithuanian communities in Denmark (Copenhagen), Sweden (Stockholm), USA (Chicago, NY, San Francisco, Los Angeles etc.), Poland (Seinai).
