Congratulations to director Aistė Rekašiūtė, winner of the 2025 play sketch competition, who presented “The Whale on the Shore” to the festival’s audience. It is a truly creative, visual, and engaging performance.
We would also like to thank everyone who participated in the competition; the sketches were incredibly interesting and revealed the themes of relationships with people and nature that are important to these young creators. This year, directors Aivaras Micius, Orestas Razumas, Aistė Rekašiūtė, and Vaidas Jaruševičius presented their ideas in the sketch competition.
Art history student Airina Oginskaitė shares her insights on “The Whale on the Shore”:
“Aistė Rekašiūtė’s play *The Whale on the Shore*, based on a play by Ugnė Toleikytė, is a poignant story about a generation trying to break free from the silence of the past. Although the characters grew up during the era of independence, the shadows left by the Soviet era still linger in their minds and bodies: their parents’ silences, unhealed traumas, and the suppression of emotions. This work reminds us that even in a free society, the traces of the past can become a real burden that we must simply acknowledge.
Stories about nearly drowning in the bathtub as a child. Memories of being an unplanned child. A mother who appears in a projection and a father who sang in the hospital until his very last breath. All of this comes together to form a cohesive, poignant mosaic of family history. Every detail on stage—the radio, the plastic wrap, the lullaby—shows that the influence of the past will always have repercussions, but people will react to them differently.
When the light goes out, all that remains is silence, which makes us realize that we cannot escape the past, but this is a wonderful opportunity to turn it into a new beginning—a new resonance—a different relationship with ourselves and others.”
Viktorija Lankauskaitė photos
The festival is funded by: the Lithuanian Council for Culture and the Kaunas City Municipality
