Katalikiškų bendruomenių teatras : Šiluvos patirtis

Abstract

This article introduces the beginnings of religious theatre and theoretical attitudes of catholic communities towards theatre creation, surveys theatre initiatives of Lithuanian monkhoods during Soviet times, and also presents and compares performances created by Šiluva parishioners and the congregation of the Sisters of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary of the Poor in Putnam (USA). Creations of homo religioso, begun in Jesuit theatrical representations in Lithuania, retained in the inter-war performances of Šiluva parishioners, and seasoned in the underground and Soviet time theatrical activity of monkhoods, have reached the 21st century and revived for a new life in the community of Šiluva worshippers. The paper discusses the theatrical creation of Šiluva parishioners during 1934–1944: it analyses productions of the drama The Shrine of Mary by the poet Mykolas Linkevičius, the reconstruction of that drama in the emigration by the congregation of the Sisters of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary of the Poor in Putnam (USA) in 1957–1959 as The Miracle of Šiluva, and a theatricalised meditation by children fostered by sisters of a contemporary catholic community of the Congregation of the Sisters of the Eucharist Jesus performed in Šiluva in the porch of the church in 2008. An attempt is made to reveal aesthetic implications of the play The Shrine of Mary and communal meanings of the theatrical metaphor of the memory of the Apparition of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Šiluva in 1608, created in different dimensions of time and space. The metatheatre of catholic communities, which involves theatrical meditations of parishioners and monkhoods, creates the theatre of memory. A theatrical representation of metaphors of sacral memory creates and meditates the identity of a community.[...]