Dugne/The Lower Depths

Lithuanian director Oskaras Koršunovas directs the fourth act of Maxim Gorky’s The Lower Depths. At this point, Luka, who had given the dwellers in this miserable asylum some hope for a better life in the future, only lives on in the memory of those left behind. Koršunovas examines Gorky’s masterpiece as a complement to the fundamental situation depicted in Beckett’s Waiting for Godot and evokes a tragic world of absurd hopelessness.

While Beckett’s protagonists still inhabit the illusion that an unknown but longed-for guest will sooner or later appear and bring about a change in their lives, there is no room for such hopes in Koršunovas’ world. Abandoned and restless, his characters are mired in the abyss of their squalid lives. Only vodka can help them to relieve their desperation.

A minimalist stage, a tiny room where the characters sit facing the audience like in some Last Supper – they make confessions, quarrel, discuss the meaning of life with deep melancholy and guzzle strong alcohol, until at some point the first glass is offered to the audience. Is this still theatre, or can we all take part in a discussion about hope? In Russia, speaking openly about God is impossible without vodka – on both sides of the stage. Oskaras Koršunovas’ latest participation at Wiener Festwochen dates back to 2000 and Hotel Europa.