"Egle" (Daughter of the Earth)

This performance was staged by the "Puppet Theater" for many years and was very successful. It included seven actors. For a long time I pondered how the story could be condensed, and how it could be portrayed from a single character's perspective. I viewed it all as events of the past which can neither be changed nor brought back. One can relive the story again and again, hear the realistic voices of a lost, loving husband and children, and comprehend what the basic values of human life are: love, loyalty, sacrifice. But if one strays from the path, suffering the loss of loved ones and painful retribution are unavoidable risks.

Even though the play is written according to Lithuanian folklore, the theme is common to all peoples: love, the homeland, betrayal, retribution. Perhaps all existing values have passed the test of time, been purified, simplified. I understood that to act this story out alone, it would not suffice to find a way to portray dialogue with a loved one when necessary. Symbolic means would have to be utilized to present a large portion of the theme.

The frame could have rotated on its axis. It is a hollow cube, almost an expression of a position in space, allotted by destiny. By throwing a piece of clothing on it, it attains the meaning of a country that has been betrayed. Short twigs hanging from the frame (small bobbins symbolize the souls of unborn children. Later, spools of thread are taken from a basket, the heads of children, which are then attached to the hanging "souls." All observe as a child is born from a sprout. So simple and so straightforward.

In the play, the basket does not merely have an everyday function.

It is a crib for the children, it is the sun (when the children ask their mother to explain what the sun is, she cannot explain in words, so she grabs what is in the vicinity, the basket, holds it above her head, and red light radiates from it). When the father is stabbed to death, a bright red drop of blood drops from the rim of the basket. A carpet, which has been rolled up at the beginning of the performance, is unrolled at the end, portraying the colorful road of life - one weaves his or her own road through life.

The bench, made from sticks, is like a chest for holding painful thoughts, and, turned over, it is also a cradle for the dead parents, a cradle for rocking and wailing with song, for apologizing, and for begging to be forgiven for deeds of betrayal.

The performance begins with unsettling music and sounds of the seashore.

Three long and huge sashes symbolize the sea and its waves,

the elements of water and nature,

although if one becomes entwined in them,

as they fall from the body to the ground they attain the symbolic meaning of a serpent.

 

Later these sashes acquire the form of a window frame, a frame which encompasses a view of the earth as seen from the sea. Even later they become long and painful thoughts, which can be wound and wound into a huge ball, even hidden under the bench so they would not cause suffering.

A myth surrounding a girl who has acquired the love of the serpent Zilvinas, dwelling in the depths of the sea, although love had turned him into a man. Egle went to live with him in the sea, leaving her parents, her sisters, her brothers and her homeland. She gave birth to three sons and a daughter, Drebule, and once requested that she be able to take the children to visit her parents. Zilvinas allowed it under two conditions, the first that she make a timely return, the second, that under no circumstances should the name of poor bewitched Zilvinas be spoken to anyone. Upon Egle's return home, everyone is very happy to see her and her brothers, in wanting her to stay forever, try to force the children into telling them the name so that they could call Zilvinas from the sea. Becoming frightened, the youngest, Egle's daughter, Drebule, tell them The brothers go to the seashore, call out his name, and when he appears, they stab Zilvinas with scythes. When it is time for Egle to return, she goes to the seashore and calls out her husband's name, but the only thing that swims to her is the bloody foam of waves. She comes to understand her and her children's betrayal of Zilvinas, and she turns herself and her children into trees.

Such is her retribution for mistakes made.

 

This page last updated on  01/06/00