Theatre

The grand red stairs, the delicate chandeliers, a cup of hot chocolate during intermission, and a sea of wonderful and interesting music, daring opera improvisation, classical and contemporary dance, and memorable roles – this is what awaits you at the National Opera and Ballet Theatre. It would be hard to imagine the cultural life of Vilnius without it.

Located in Vilnius on Gediminas Avenue, the Lithuanian National Drama Theatre has long been protected by three muses: Calliope, the patron of epic poetry, Thalia, who presided over comedy, and Melpomene, the muse of tragedy. The spell of the sculptures captures the Lithuanian and foreign directors, actors, artists, and composers who work here, resulting in a modern, bold, creative theatre where performances are met with standing ovations.

This isn’t even a theatre. It’s more of a gathering of free-thinking artists that began with Giacomo Puccini’s La bohème. The founders of this theatre have even been dubbed “the bohemians”. For more than ten years now, the theatre has been treating audiences to modern productions, with talented opera soloists from the world stage, musicians, costume designers and scenographers contributing. 

A theatre of open doors and open hearts. A contemporary performing arts centre which welcomes people who are creative and people who aspire to be. A place where thoughts are cleared and space appears for stimulus. Located in a former printing house, the theatre now prints art – art that is new and different, and that is tearing long-standing traditions and opinions to pieces. Arts Printing House is like an airport for aeroplanes run by different cultural operators. As well as for those who fly with them.

The theatre traditions here are as old as the building in which the Russian Drama Theatre of Lithuania is located. Formerly patronised by governors and dukes, today it is creating its own distinct aesthetics and devoting significant attention to youth education. This is the only professional theatre in Lithuania that stages performances in Russian.

They have 100 reasons to emigrate... to culture. They are urging people to submerge themselves in theatre, creating an art factory, and inviting visitors to tour the theatre space. Long the cultural centre of Kaunas and all of Lithuania, the 
Kaunas Drama Theatre was the first professional drama theatre in Lithuania and is now open and modern, striving to befriend the viewer, fostering the extraordinary history of Lithuanian theatre, keeping its secrets, and inviting visitors to experience the magic of theatre.

This is an easy place to feel the spirit of another time – to go back to interwar Kaunas, where the silk dresses of the ladies rustled and the fragrances of the gentlemen filled the air. During the interwar period, the building that now houses the Kaunas State Musical Theatre was where professional theatre art flourished and the charming bohemian spirit blossomed. It hasn’t disappeared to this day – now the best theatre directors and conductors put on musical performances and world-famous musicals here, and talented soloists sing operetta arias. 

The cradle of modern dance in Lithuania. A place where talented dancers have been emerging for more than three and a half centuries, and which gives Kaunas the wonderful Aura Dance Festival – an international affair that astonishes audiences with creative challenges, an expanded perception of dance, and modern dance stars from around the world. 

There has been a theatre in this building for almost 200 years. After being burned down and brought back from the ashes, restored and reconstructed, it now embellishes Klaipėda Theatre Square and brings together theatre fans of all ages, amazing them not only with wonderful productions, but with the valuable art collection inside the theatre as well. The renovated theatre also hosts the International Theatre Festival TheATRIUM, which is quickly becoming a tradition. 

This is a place where people speak in broader terms, and the world is observed with eyes that are more wide open. The founder of the OKT is Oskaras Koršunovas, a globally acclaimed theatre director who disarms foreign critics with his performances and can’t stand double standards, deformations of the absurd, or degenerate customs. He is used to telling it as it is, and the truth is often shocking. Just like the entirely different, unconventional, and sometimes completely clarified experience of his theatre. 

Airida Gudaitė and Laurynas Žakevicius established the company Low Air in 2012 as the first urban dance theatre in Lithuania with the mission to inform more people about the culture of urban dance through building culture communities, creating and introducing dance performances, creating the conditions for education, and initiating various social programmes reachable to anyone.