What if you put love in a box? What would it be like? What would it tell us? And what if we could watch it through a tiny hole? What would we expect to see? Or hear? Or feel? Those are the questions that have inspired the team to embark on this creative journey.

Theatre installation “Love Boxes” could be referred to as an artistic contemplation on love. Flashing before one’s eyes as gleams of light, different shapes and forms of love here grow into all embracing, infinite love. It’s a unique performance for a single spectator.

The installation “Love Boxes” was awarded with the highest Lithuanian theatre award, the Golden Stage Cross for the best puppet and object theatre performance in 2015.

Karolina Jurkštaitė

“This performance is like a taste of love, as intangible and resisting words as the mystery of love itself. Love and different forms of it are experienced here as one continuing flow and feeling, unique and very personal for each spectator. Emotional content of the performance dictated its form: it’s intended for one audience member at a time; it takes more than half an hour to walk alone inside the labyrinths of love accompanied by 16 actors.

The concept of this theatrical installation allowed each performer to reveal his/her creative potential and try oneself out in different roles: working in this artistic laboratory meant they were actors, directors, and designers at the same time. The subtle theme of the performance could not have been revealed without the sounds and music by composer Arturas Bumšteinas.”

Troupe 459

Formed during the study years under the title Troupe 459, the company of young puppet and object theatre artists aims to change the stereotypical attitude towards puppet theatre and explore infinite possibilities of this interdisciplinary art form.

The company consists of six puppeteers who are actors, directors, designers, composers and lighting artists: Monika Mikalauskaitė, Aušra Bakanaitė, Daina Ulmytė, Gintarė Damanskytė, Rūta Jankevičiūtė, and Tomas Zinkus. Artistic directors of the company are puppet theatre director, designer, and teacher Jūratė Januškevičiūtė, also a puppet theatre director, actor and teacher Karolina Jurkštaitė.

Press reviews

“Theatre as peeking through a key hole is related to the old forms of this performing art and may seem outdated. In ‘Love Boxes’, however, when treating it literally and shrinking the surrounding world into a box, the universe of love is born. It’s as wide or narrow as one wishes. And if jolly hands invite you to play with a heart, why not?”

Goda Dapšytė, Lithuanian Theatre Bulletin

“Every spectator becomes a voyeur peeking through a hole into a strange world, someone else’s stories which are not only about the love between a man and a woman (though it dominated), but also about love for one’s self, friendship and love as deception. This entire world of love is made of puppets and objects of different forms, styles, materials.”

Kristina Steiblytė, 7 Meno Dienos