Lithuanian State Youth Theatre | Premiere “THE MARRIAGE” | Directed by Adomas Juška

The performance is in Lithuanian with English surtitles.

The second premiere of the Youth Theatre’s 62nd season is “The Marriage” (“Ślub”) by Witold Gombrowicz, a Polish modernist, directed by Adomas Juška.

The play unfolds in the dream of Henryk, a soldier at the front. Returning home, he finds his world distorted and ruined. Through a wedding, he tries to restore order to himself and his world, but the conflict between the individual and form remains. “Henryk creates the dream, the dream creates Henryk, events create themselves, people create one another,” says Juška. The dream reveals the horror of dehumanisation and the power of human creativity.

Witold Gombrowicz (1904–1969), a Polish writer of Lithuanian descent, was a major postwar Polish émigré writer. His writing combines philosophy, irony, grotesque and a critique of tradition. His works include “Ferdydurke”, “Trans-Atlantyk”, “Cosmos” and the plays “Ivona, Princess of Burgundy”, “The Marriage” and “Operetta”. Begun during the war in Argentina, “The Marriage” was published in Spanish in 1948 and in Poland in 1957. Translations follow his revised text.

Adomas Juška (b. 1996), a student of Eimuntas Nekrošius and a graduate of the Lithuanian Academy of Music and Theatre, made his debut at the Youth Theatre with “Švejk”. His work is known for poetic imagery, symbolism, rhythm and atmosphere. He won two Golden Stage Cross awards for Best Director, for “The West Pier” (2023) and “The Melancholy of Resistance” (2025).