- International stage
- Theatre
- Opera
- Performance
- Visual arts
SUN&SEA
Dates
14.09 / Saturday, h15:00
14.09 / Saturday, h16:00
14.09 / Saturday, h17:00
15.09 / Sunday, h15:00
15.09 / Sunday, h16:00
15.09 / Sunday, h17:00
Dates
14.09 / Saturday, h15:00
14.09 / Saturday, h16:00
14.09 / Saturday, h17:00
15.09 / Sunday, h15:00
15.09 / Sunday, h16:00
15.09 / Sunday, h17:00
Venue
Duration
1 h
Language
English with Polish subtitles
Accessibility
- The auditorium is located on the balcony, accessed by stairs. No elevator.
- The height of the opaque part of the balcony railing is 68 cm from the floor.
- No adapted toilets for people with disabilities, toilets equipped with platforms
- Dog guide is allowed
Read more information on the page with the description of the venue.
Venue accessibilityTickets
"(...)Imagine a beach – you on it, or better: watching from above – the burning sun, sunscreen and bright bathing suits and sweaty palms and legs. Tired limbs sprawled lazily across a mosaic of towels. Imagine the occasional squeal of children, laughter, the sound of an ice cream van in the distance. The musical rhythm of waves on the surf, a soothing sound (on this particular beach, not elsewhere). The rustling of plastic bags whirling in the air, then silently floating, jellyfish-like, below the waterline. The rumble of a volcano, or of an airplane, or a speedboat. Then a chorus of songs: everyday songs, songs of worry and of boredom, songs of almost nothing. And below them: the slow creaking of an exhausted Earth, a gasp."
Lucia Pietroiusti
Sun and Sea is a climate opera created by Lina Lapelyte, Vaiva Grainyte, and Rugile Barzdziukaite. After winning the Golden Lion at the Venice Biennale for the Lithuanian Pavillon, it toured the most important festivals and stages in New York, Paris, Lisbon, London, or recently: Singapore. During the Malta Festival 2024, it will finally unveil its beach in Poland, inviting the local community to join in the beach experience.
Presented as Lithuania’s national entry for the 2019 Venice Biennale, Sun & Sea’s all-female creative team – director Rugilė Barzdžiukaite, librettist Vaiva Grainytė, and artist and composer Lina Lapelytė – received the event’s top award, the Golden Lion.
Using several tons of sand to transform each venue into a lively beach, sunbathing characters offer up a range of seductive harmonies and melodic stories that glide between the mundane, the sinister, and the surreal. From the sprawling narrative of their lives emerges a piercing exploration of climate change, shining light on the complex relationship between people and our planet. The piece is brought to life by 13 vocalists who are surrounded by local community members acting as fellow beach-goers in each city.
With a bird’s-eye view of the performance from a mezzanine gallery above the stage, audiences look down on the assembled characters who appear as a typical group of vacationers of varying ages, from different walks of life, attired in colourful bathing suits and sunbathing under the full glare of the sun over a mosaic of towels. Surveying this fleshy tableau vivant from their sun-like vantage point, audiences observe the frailty of the human condition.
As the libretto unfolds we are introduced to each individual in turn, through sung performances (performed whilst lying down) that reveal private preoccupations, ranging from trivial concerns about sunburn and plans for future vacations to nagging fears of environmental catastrophe, which surface as though from the depths of the characters’ troubled consciousness. Frivolous micro-stories on this crowded beach give way to broader, more serious topic sand grow into a global symphony, a universal human choir addressing issues of planetary scale; tired bodies offering a metonym for a tired planet.
Staged on an indoor beach, composed through light, architecture and music, this durational work unfolds on a loop over several hours. The libretto of the piece is set as a mosaic of stories, inner monologues, dreams and thoughts, sung in solos and as a chorus by the beachgoers. This ‘soup’ of stories might sound mundane and carefree; however, in this liturgical, poppy, and synthetic ocean of songs one can feel an impending threat. The picture of enjoyable holidays belies the consequences of this inertia – planetary resources being extracted as if sipping a fizzy Piña Colada. (…)
Lucia Pietroiusti.
Concept and development: Rugilė Barzdžiukaitė, Vaiva Grainytė and Lina Lapelytė
Director and set designer: Rugilė Barzdžiukaitė
Lyrics: Vaiva Grainytė
Composer and music director: Lina Lapelytė
Curator: Lucia Pietroiusti
Tour producer: Caroline Smith
Production manager / Stage manager: Erika Urbelevič
Technical directors: Dovydas Korba
Libretto translation (from Lithuanian to English): Rimas Užgiris
Libretto translation (from Lithuanian to Polish): Agnieszka Rembiałkowska
Sound engineer: Romuald Chaloin Galiauskas
Produced by: Sun&Sea
Founding Producer: Neon Realism
Aliona Alymova, Svetlana Bagdonaitė, Raminta Barzdžiukienė, Nabila Dandara, Auksė Dovydėnaitė, Saulė Dovydėnaitė, Daniel Monteagudo Garcia, Claudia Graziadei, Sandro Haehnel, Vincentas Korba, Artūras Miknaitis, Eglė Paškevičienė, Nora Petročenko, Kalliopi Petrou, Jonas Statkevičius, Lukas Vaičiūnas, Šarūnas Visockis
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