The last two weeks I have spent in Lithuania, my home country. Activities here included kayaking in wild nature, lots of Lithuanian beer and not so much culture. However, visiting with friends from abroad and acting as their tourguide, I managed to take in some culture.
We visited the Museum of Genocide in Vilnius, which is dedicated to the Lithuanian struggle against Soviets. It's located in the former KGB building, which, ironically, is now transformed into the courthouse. One does not hear much about Baltic states history in Western Europe, so my friends were fascinated to learn the horrors and amounts of people transported to Siberia or simply killed. After a rather well planned exposition in the museum, visitors are allowed to inspect prison cellars. That is a truly horrific experience as you walk by torture rooms and killing area.
Just before going to Lithuania, I saw The Late Middle Classes at the Donmar Warehouse in Covent Garden. Simon Gray's play tells a story of a middle class family exiled from London to the Isle of Wight in 1950s. Celia, a wife and mother, excellently performed by Helen McCrory, is bored by provincial life and longing for London. Her son Holly holds this ticket – he needs to win a scholarship for a prestigious school. To increase his chances, a piano tutor is hired and a friendship between the boy and his teacher starts. There is lots of room for suspicions and topical paedophile accusations. As Michael Billington from the Guardian notices, the tutor is presented as 'a man who seeks to harness his instincts and turn them to creative ends'. And so, it is left for a viewer to decide what is the truth. As it was my first time in this celebrated theatre, the play was a perfect christening present.
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