“No Wifi in the Village”. Photo by D. Matvejev

Actor, director and puppet theatre creator Šarūnas Datenis (b. 1986) spent a year at Vilnius Gediminas Technical University studying Automation. However, he then switched to theatre studies – in 2010, he obtained a Bachelor’s degree in acting and puppeteering from the Lithuanian Academy of Music and Theatre, followed by a Master’s degree in 2012. Since 2010, Datenis has been working at the Vilnius Puppet Theatre where he acts and creates performances for children. He has embodied several roles on television, in cinema, at the Arts Printing House, the Lithuanian Russian Drama Theatre and the State Youth Theatre, as well as directed theatre performances.

Datenis regularly collaborates with the set designer Antanas Dubra. In 2012, their debut performance Gaidelis pinigautojas (Rooster the Money-maker, the Arts Printing House) earned the duo the Golden Cross of the Stage. The two artists have so far created four performances for children at the Vilnius Theatre Lėlė, the most recent of which is Kaime nėra Wifi (No Wifi in the Village, 2019) based on the book by Danguolė Kandrotienė. It is a story about a girl who one day at her grandparents’ attic discovers a world of things that are still alive and have a lot to tell. Grandfather’s bicycle, grandmother’s high heels and even the water closet: every item remembers some of the most important stories – of love, fashion and customs of that time. Those items, discarded in the attic, no longer of interest to anyone, express their anger, laugh, tell jokes and proverbs and provoke thought.