March 7, 2014 the Vakhtangov Theatre presents its new performance “Give us a smile, O Lord” by G. Kanovich directed by Rimas Tuminas. His coworkers are the artist Adomas Jacovskis  and the composer Faustas Latenas. The so-called play-parable based on the novel of the Lithuanian writer, who lives in Israel, Grigorius Kanovicius was staged by Rimas Tuminas.

The play was first created by R.Tuminas at the Maly Theater of Vilnius in 1994. Every gesture of the tragic clownade, the aphoristic remarks, amazing music and finest performing of the leading actors — Sigitas Rachkis, Vytautas Grigolis, Gediminas Girdvainis and Vytautas Shapranauskas have aroused great interest around the production, which was taken, without exaggeration, as a theatrical masterpiece.

In 2014 Rimas Tuminas returns to the novel of Grigorius Kanovichyus, this time on stage of the Vakhtangov Theatre. The cast of the performance is rich with names of renowned actors, who are well known outside Russia — Sergei Makovetsky, Vladimir Simonov, Viktor Sukhorukov, Yevgeny Knyazev, Alexei Guskov, Yulia Rutberg , Grigory Antipenko, Viktor Dobronravov etc. The stage-director has retold this seemingly quite common story using a new language of poetic theatre. This story, however goes back to the parable, imbued with great love for Man.

In the centre of the plot is the fate of Lithuanian Jewry, transmitted truly through the story of the «a little man» who is obstinately opposed to evil. We are sure that the new vision of the novel of Grigorius Kanovicius by the Vakhtangov theatre will be interesting, however, not only for the Russian audience. The universal sense of the performance, a conjunction of Lithuanian and Russian theatre tradition bring the performance far beyond a single country.

Running time: 3 hours 20 min with one intermission.

The play is recommended for audience older than 16 years (16 +).