The Silence of the Sirens

The sirens are singing – beautifully, writes Homer. They sit on an island, lure men onto land and then kill them. Except for Orpheus, who sings louder, and Odysseus, whose companions stuff wax in their ears and have him tied to the mast so that he can listen to the sirens without dying.

European mythology is dominated by violence: between people, gods, mythical creatures and the sexes. Inequality and power imbalances produce fears and defence strategies instead of relationships. What makes us hold on to these structures?

Working with her collaborators, director Laura Kutkaitė puts a contemporary story right in the middle of the mine field of myth: four years after the highpoint of the #MeToo movement in Lithuania, she puts the issue of abuse of power in the arts world on the stage. Posing on a rock, four female actors open their island theatre and tell true stories from their working life, while waiting for “the great Odysseus”. They leave no dark detail out – not even the competition between them – and at the same time perform theatre: in costume and makeup, with sound and light, with bitter humour, passion, vulnerability and plenty of reasons. In this way they strike the structures exactly where they could change.