Daugther-In-Law

Daughter-in-Law is a semantically roomy performance raising the pressing problem and demonstrating that people today are still guided by some social values from the 19th century. A team of different generations actors of The State Small Theatre of Vilnius, together with director Gabrielė Tuminaitė and writer Paulina Pukytė present a classical work known to each Lithuanian since the days of school - the stage version of Daughter-in-Law by Žemaitė.

The writer who created in the second half of the 19th century depicted the life of rural people, but for the first time in Lithuanian literature we testify such a psychologically profound portrayal of woman's struggle in conjugal life. Daughter-in-Law shows a situation when, upon agreement of the parents of two families, Katrė, originating from an orderly and wealthy family, is married to the son of poor, negligent peasants, however, holding vast land. In the new home Katrė is faced with laziness, slovenry, roughness, indifference and even violence, but initially she believes she can change it. However, the environment and its resulting relations appear to be insurmountable.

We will not see the illustrations of rural life in the Daughter-in-Law by the Small Theatre of Vilnius. However, the environment of characters created by Vytautas Narbutas - remnants of an abandoned stadium - has been permeated by ramshackle houses and the atmosphere of inner slack. The performance is full of scenic symbols and generalisations that create almost a surreal mood. The young bride Katrė coming to the home of Vingis finds a real nightmare from which, unfortunately, only death could set her free...

Žemaitė (1845-1921) is one of the most prominent Lithuanian writers, a realist, educator and one of the first Lithuanian feminists. Although she was home-schooled, she managed to learn mathematics, geography, improved her Polish and studied French. Married to a poor man, she later became poor. Because of her lively and witty character, she was able to make contacts with intellectuals and was very sociable. When she was in her fifties, she began to write and wrote over 354 short stories, essays, essays, plays and journalistic articles. Some of her works as well as her Autobiography are probably the first and by this day one of the most significant feminist reflections in Lithuanian culture. Like other women of culture, Žemaitė was of noble birth, a representative of manor culture. And although she lived in a poor environment (the reasons were mentioned above), she was able to both sympathise with the poor as to speak from the distance that was necessary for the expression of feminist ideas and the exploration of women’s thought. Besides her creative activity, she actively involved in organizing the first women congress in Lithuania (in Kaunas, 1907). In her works, she already made difference between sex and gender and this distinction appears in the short story Daugther-in-Law as well. Žemaitė’s strong feminist approach is also reflected in her dress code - a rural woman’s headscarf worn as a sign of protest against the devaluation of women, especially in rural environment. Also, she worked for a time as an editor-in-chief for famous Lithuanian newspaper Lietuvos žinios (Lithuanian News) as well as was the responsible for the content for the supplements Mokykla (School) and Aušrinė (Phosphor). These activities mark her out as an important educator and intellectual in her time. In 1915, she was imprisoned for two weeks because of censorship. This impaired her health. During the war, she actively took care of the needs for the victims of the war, such as providing food and collecting funds. After her recovery, she visited New York, Boston, and Chicago for the donations and was the first feminist woman from Lithuania in the USA (she actively appeared in the women’s congress in Philadelphia in 1918). There she lived with her son, but eventually returned to Lithuania where she died.