LITHUANIAN NATIONAL DRAMA THEATER
Birutė Kapustinskaitė. “STAND-UP FOR MEANING AND MEANINGLESSNESS” (No. 16)
Director – EGLĖ ŠVEDKAUSKAITĖ
Set Designer – Ona JUCIŪTĖ
Costume Designer – Dovilė GUDAČIAUSKAITĖ
Composer – Ernestas KAUŠYLAS
Lighting Designer – Monika ŠERSTABOJEVAITĖ
Assistant Director – Kotryna SIAURUSAITYTĖ
Producer – Rugilė PUKŠTYTĖ
Cast:
Mother – Vitalija MOCKEVIČIŪTĖ
Son – Karolis KASPERAVIČIUS
Actress in the video projection – Rimantė VALIUKAITĖ
“When they asked me to create this act, I said, ‘Okay, I’ll do it, but just so you know, it’s going to be dark.’ They said, ‘That’s great—people love the dark.’ I said, ‘Really?’ They said, ‘Yeah.’ I said, ‘Well, let’s do it.’”
For the first time on the stage of the Lithuanian National Drama Theater: stand-up comedy—a genre that, through laughter, cleanses not only the storyteller but also the listener. Making another person laugh is truly no easy task. And an even more difficult task—one that the theater takes to heart when using humor as a form of communication—is to touch on painful themes that are close to all of us: grief, loss, and suicide. To stir something unexpected within a person, to help them laugh at themselves, to view painful experiences from a distance so that they can come to terms with them.
Playwright Birutė Kapustinskaitė and director Eglė Švedkauskaitė, collaborating for the first time, invite the audience to embark on a journey into new theatrical forms and, through a single stand--up comedy routine.
Characters in the play: Mom—a famous TV host—and Son—a successful stand-up comedian—are both outspoken, but when faced with the loss of their Father, they find it difficult to communicate. This is a story about letting go of anger, shame, and guilt, and about finding ways to open up to vulnerability and to one another.
“Stand-up for Meaning and Meaninglessness”—a comedic play about the main characters’ attempt to communicate after the loss of their father. Black humor, self-irony, and narrative humor (stand-up) are combined here with drama, weaving together a story of loss, the relationship between a mother and son, society’s view of mourning, and the resulting need to adapt,” says the play’s author, Birutė Kapustinskaitė.
“I believe that theater, as a public medium of communication with a broad audience, must speak not only of heroic death and self-sacrifice, but also of basic, unmystified mental health; it must keep up with what’s happening in society here and now; and it must foster empathy for people facing depression and other mental illnesses. “This play is a way to talk about hope and the will to live, even when it seems you don’t know how to do it,” says director Eglė Švedkauskaitė.
Premiere: October 24, 2024
◊ 2024 Golden Stage Cross. Best Female Role – Vitalija Mockevičiūtė
◊ 2024 Golden Stage Cross. Best Playwright – Birutė Kapustinskaitė
The production is also funded by the European Union’s “Creative Europe” program.
The production is funded by the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Lithuania
Running time: ~ 1 hr. 15 min. (no intermission)
Age rating: 16+
Doors open 1 hour before the performance
Discounts:
50%* – for schoolchildren, students, and seniors of retirement age.
100%* – for people with disabilities and one accompanying person (one accompanying person per person with a disability)
25% – for individuals holding a Klaipėda Resident Card or a Klaipėda District Resident Card “Open Horizons”
*Discounted tickets are limited to 15 percent of the total number of tickets sold for the event, except when there are 24 hours remaining before the event. (Klaipėda City Municipal Council, June 27, 2025, No. T2-213)
To purchase 10 or more tickets, please contact:
[email protected]
For group ticket reservations and information, call +370 46 410565 or email
[email protected] 
