Photo by Dimitry Finkovskiy

The playwright and writer Virginija Rimkaitė (b. 1991) obtained an undergraduate degree in Lithuanian philology and direction as well as a master’s degree in theatrology. In 2016, the author won the Lithuanian National Drama Theatre’s Versmė playwriting competition with her first play Virimo temperatūra 5425 (Boiling Temperature 5425) which she had written during a creative workshop. This play was staged in 2017 by Artūras Areima. It was also staged at the Lithuanian National Drama Theatre in 2019 (directed by Giedrė Kriaučionytė-Vosylienė). Her second play, Patina, won third prize at the Talking About Borders international drama contest organised by the Nuremberg State Theatre in 2018. The ideas of the Theatre of the Absurd are inherent in Rimkaitė’s creative work. Her works are heavyweight, rich with the feeling of existential emptiness and imperceptibly growing tension. 

The play Boiling Temperature 5425 (2016) revolves around the hero of ancient myths, Tantalus: after offending the gods, he is sent to hell and punished to suffer from thirst and hunger forever. In other words, the gods took away Tantalus’s opportunity to consume, and this was his eternal hell. An opposite situation is tested in the play – can consumerism possibly be the real hell of the modern world? Can excess rather than lack be the threat today?