Jean and Beatrice is a one-act play written by Carole Frechette (b. 1949), a contemporary Canadian playwright. Although Carole Frechette writes in the French language, her award-winning plays are translated into different languages and produced all over the world. The play John and Beatrice received the Governor General’s Award in 2002. Beatrice, a lonely woman, places an advertisement offering a substantial reward to any man who can intrigue, move and finally seduce her. She is waiting for someone who can pass her test on the 33rd floor of an abandoned tower block. Her list already contains several candidates: a masseur, a doctor of philosophy and a sewage engineer. However, none of them succeed. This is when John, a modern-day bounty hunter, comes. The detective-like beginning gradually grows into a deep and painful drama, marked by unpredictable turns and revelations. Two lonely people, the man and the woman, who have never felt true love have a natural desire to escape their spiritual ’draught‘ and experience something real – tears, pain or love. The protagonists attempt to make themselves understood and feel each other‘s closeness; however, they do not know how to do it. The lie that led to their acquaintance is slowly torn to pieces yet the characters invent new stories, trying to hide under the new masks of deceit. Finally, the question as to what the truth is arises. The genre of the play may be defined as both melodrama (a story about the man-woman relationships, attraction and fight of the opposites) and drama of deceit (the theme of truth and lie, their relativeness). The bright and lively role of Beatrice is performed by Eugenija Bendoriutė, an actress of the Kaunas State Drama Theatre, the role of John is played by Aleksandras Rubinovas. The play is directed by Stanislovas Rubinovas, scenography made by Sergėjus Bocullo. Music for the play was written by Titas Petrikis, a graduate of the Bournemouth Screen Academy and a finalist at the Berlin International Film Festival in 2007. Music for the play is the young composer‘s debut at the professional theatre.
Premiere in March 2007
III Festival of Chamber Performances. Panevėžys (Lithuania)2007.
The spring festival of Lithuanian Theatres "KAUNAS 2007". Kaunas (Lithuania)2007
