On 14 September, Oleh Oneshchak's performance will be staged at the legendary Meno Fortas theatre in Vilnius

✨The screening will be the closing event of the exhibition "Theatre Stage Characters: Ukraine – Lithuania" – a joint project of the Lithuanian Museum of Theatre, Music and Cinema and Scenography Gallery , implemented within the framework of the Lviv Quadrіennalе of Scenography "21st Century Theatre Costume. Dialogue of identities: Ukraine - Lithuania".

The musical and poetic performance "Friend" is a dialogue between an actor and a young composer, based on poems by Ukrainian authors of the 20th century. The audience will be immersed in the world of seven poets – Yevhen Malaniuk, Volodymyr Svidzinsky, Maksym Rylsky, Yevhen Pluzhnyk, Pavlo Tychyna, Volodymyr Sosyura, and Mykhailo Semenko. The themes addressed by the creators are existence, love, separation, and creation. Our country's achievements today are the result of their faith and sacrifice. They believed in a free Ukraine and the importance of their ideas for the state. This work was often like sowing seeds on dead ground, but eventually the field begins to sprout, so their contribution is not in vain.

The poetic and musical performance is structured as a personally felt and subjectively composed interweaving of poems, and thus an interweaving of themes, moods, and plots. Each of the texts presented is separate and self-sufficient. However, the unhurried associative and creative unfolding of these poems creates an important internal story, which, on the one hand, through volitional, ideological and intimate experiences, tells about Ukrainian society a hundred years ago, and at the same time, this story is about us, the modern people. Working with the texts of iconic Ukrainian poets of the 1920s and 1930s becomes a search for answers to the questions that concern us today in view of external threats and internal challenges.

This project is a metaphorical cry and, at the same time, a creative meditation in dialogue with the past, in dialogue with the present, in dialogue with oneself.

Director: Oleh Oneshchak

Composer: Maria Verbyana

Set designer: Oleksandra Nahirna

Starring: Oleh Oneshchak and Maria Verbyana

Language of the performance: Ukrainian

Time: 14 September at 7 p.m.

Duration: approximately 1 hour

Location: Teatras Meno Fortas

After the performance— a warm meeting with the creators of "The Friend" (with translation into Lithuanian)

Admission is free💛 You can make a donation to support Ukraine.

---

The project is implemented with the support of the Lviv City Council, the Ukrainian Cultural Foundation, and the Ukrainian Institute.