Director Oskaras Korsunovas: The play “Shopping and Fucking” is urgent for us today both in the political and social respect: it exposes the most shameful trait of today’s life, culture and society – everything is bought and sold, even our morals are a commodity. The characters of the play, young people, are also made to sell their only value – their youth, they sell it in order to survive. In this respect Ravenhill wrote a cruel play, but also very human at the same time. Human, because it provokes the audience to look differently at the most indecent or deplorable human acts and their causes.

For me it was extremely difficult to direct this play. What it represents is indeed terrible. Of course, one can say that its characters are fringe dwellers, homosexuals, drug addicts, and their problems do not concern us. I don’t claim that I’m particularly interested in this. But the play reveals extreme life situations and raises quite general problems: we can see that today commercial relations have already spread over the spiritual realm.

After the restoration of independence Lithuanian theatre ceased to be in resistance and lost touch with urgent problems and real – changing! – life. The social system and human relations changed. People underwent all kinds of psychological and spiritual cataclysms… In the meantime, theatre as if closed up in itself and became a kind of culinary art for connoisseurs. Ravenhill’s play offers a possibility to speak about the problems of contemporary society, dependence of one person on another, slavery… I would like to set the realistic theatre against the “abstract” theatre prevailing in Lithuania. To my mind, the purpose and privilege of theatre is to give sense to what is happening with us now…

“The play “Shopping and Fucking” is up-to-date in both the political and social sense: it uncovers the most shameful traits of today’s life, culture and society – everything is for sale, even moral identity become the item of merchandise. The characters of the play are the young people, being made to sell their only value – their youth, and they are selling it wanting to survive. From that point of view M. Ravenhill wrote a cruel play, but it is very human at the same time. Human, because it provokes the spectator to evaluate in a different way the most indecent or even blameworthy actions and their reasons”.

Set designer Jurate Paulekaite: For us this play is new in that it gives us a chance to face our contemporaries directly and openly. And the Lithuanian theatre seems to be rather reluctant to do it…

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“In my opinion, the title of this play helps us to be honest. It allows the audience to realize what they should expect. If you come to a performance entitled “Shopping and Fucking”, you are already disposed not to be shocked, and you can try to realize the bitter truths about the deals of contemporary society.”
Max Stafford-Clark, the first director of “Shopping and Fucking” in “Out of Joint” theatre, London

“I would like to congratulate the director, as he created a really spiritual performance. To me it is first of all a religious performance, – not because I’m a priest, but because I could see very well that those people are balancing on the edge of redemption. <…> The end of the performance offers a lot of hope: this shining bottle, brought in by one of the characters, is like hope. So, I’m also leaving with hope.”
Priest Julius Sasnauskas. From the discussion of the performance with the audience, October 22, 1999

“<…> Korsunovas’ work – Mark Ravenhill’s play “Shopping and Fucking” – is outstanding in many respects. It is not only jam-packed halls that confirm it – this work with a biting title seems to aim at shocking the audience, but as you look at the totality of the director’s work, it turns out to be the most tender, poetic and lyrical work by Korsunovas. And the most suggestive one.
In “Shopping and Fucking” the director does not search for newness in itself, but using new stylistics tries to convey the contradictions of life with the help of philosophy, theatrical expression, the play itself, different manners of speech, contemporary art, poetry, technical means and platitude.”
Daiva Sabaseviciene. The Most Lyrical Work by Oskaras Korsunovas // Literatura ir menas, 09-10-1999

“For Korsunovas entourage is only an additional means, not the main one. His performance tells us about what is important to everyone; it is the theatre of human passions. Having chosen a play about drug addicts, he actually conveys Shakespearean passions and intrigues.”
Vaidas Jauniskis. Longing for a Stray Rocket… // Kauno diena, 16-06-1999

“Naturalism and theatricality here sparkles like mineral water that is used by the characters to spray on the heated audience.”
Rasa Vasinauskaitė. Theatrical Naturalism and the Truth of Life // 7 meno dienos, 25-06-1999

“Probably the characters are made alive by the actors’ warmth. Not everyone can cross the boundary and play such characters. This performance proves that the actor’s profession is dangerous, it is a calling rather than profession. <…> The performance is important as a proof of a new attitude to the mission of an actor and theatre. The theatre will be live and needed only when it is created by strong, spiritually pure, intellectual and emotional personalities. If actors who had no right to do it were allowed to play in this performance, it would be anti-sanitary…”
Jonas Vaitkus. Spectators about Korsunovas’ Performance // 7 meno dienos, 19-11-1999

“Oskaras Korsunovas has always been interested in aesthetically meaningful communication with the audience rather than its direct provocation by breaking the canons of the theatre art. In his performances signs of reality (objects, textures and character types) are aestheticized and given conditional meanings aimed at many-layered perception.”
Audronis Liuga. Theatre – Different and the Same // 7 meno dienos, 03-12-1999

Set designer
Juratė Paulekaitė

Composer
Gintaras Sodeika

Cast
BRIAN - Vaidotas Martinaitis, Vidas Petkevicius
GARY - Darius Gumauskas
LULU - Airida Gintautaite, Rasa Samuolyte
MARK - Arunas Sakalauskas
ROBBIE - Dainius Gavenonis

Premiere
1999 September 9