ABOUT

Devil’s Bride is a musical drama exploring eternity, passion, youth, and the fear of losing everything. Inspired by Arūnas Žebriūnas’s iconic film, the life and legacy of actress Vaiva Mainelytė, the intimate cinematic language of John Cassavetes, and Kazys Boruta’s novella Baltaragis’s Mill, the production delves into how collective myths shape our identities.

The creative team poses a central question: Do we seek to stop time in order to truly live it, or to maintain control over it? The story unfolds through the eyes of the protagonist, a young actress named Jurga, portrayed by Alvydė Pikturnaitė. Jurga finds herself uncertain whether she truly loves or is merely performing the role of someone in love. The world she once longed to conquer now feels hollow, and pleasure no longer fills the void.

Playwright and director Naubertas Jasinskas explains: “We’re crafting an entirely new interpretation of Devil’s Bride—not a restaging of Boruta’s work or a youthful remake of the film. This production asks whether reconstruction is an act of love for the past or a failure to create and exist in the present. It resonates today because we live in a culture obsessed with re-enactment, nurturing a precarious relationship with memory. The urge to restore, remake, return becomes a haven that allows us to avoid confronting the present.”

The play, inspired by a range of sources, unfolds in two parts. The first immerses the audience in the memory of the legendary film Devil’s Bride—not only as a staged reconstruction, but as the inner recollection, longing, and dream of an ageing actress. From this romanticised vision of love and eternity, the narrative shifts to the present. Here, the same characters—a man and a woman—meet again. Their bond has fractured, love has faded, promises have dissolved. What we witness is not the fulfilment promised by cultural myth, but rather its collapse. This rupture allows the myth that love conquers all to be dismantled. The second act reveals that the long-awaited “happily ever after” never arrived.

This is a contemporary reflection on the power of time, the dissonance between memory and reality, and the painful necessity of confronting myth without the veil of nostalgia.

A co-production between the Lithuanian National Drama Theatre (LNDT) and MMLAB.

CREATIVE TEAM

Playwright, director: Naubertas Jasinskas

Consultant for dramaturgy: Marija Kavtaradze

Composer, music dramaturg: Vytautas Leistrumas

Scenographer: Sigita Šimkūnaitė

Costume Designer: Sandra Straukaitė

Choreographer: Oksana Griaznova

Lighting designer: Dainius Urbonis

Video artist: Ričard Žygis

Producer: Rusnė Kregždaitė

Executive Producer: Rugilė Pukštytė

Manager: Greta Senkutė

Assistant Directors: Bartė Liagaitė and Regina Garuolytė

Cast: Vaiva Mainelytė , Jolanta Dapkūnaitė, Alvydė Pikturnaitė, Karolis, Kasperavičius, Matas Sigliukas, Laurynas Jurgelis, Šarūnas Rapolas Meliešius, Augustė Šimulynaitė.

Translated with DeepL.com (free version)

PRODUCERS

MMLAB theatre, Lithuanian national drama theatre

FUNDED BY

Lithuanian council for culture, Vilnius City municipality, Lithuanian ministry for culture

PREMIER

November 13 d. 19:00