Written by Aistė Ptakauskė
Directed by Emily Mendelsohn
Performed by Tatjana Gorina and Agnė Kiškytė
Photo Gallery by Kamilė Žičkytė

Staged reading at “Menu spaustuve”, in collaboration with US Embassy, Vilnius in 2012

“Cleavage” is a one act play about an 18-year-old woman, Pam, who is torn between who she wants to be and who, she thinks, she should be. Pam does a good job of ignoring one of her two halves when she is alone, but as soon as she wants to get involved into a relationship with a man, she has to decide who she really is. She literally splits into two personas, Pam and Sally, who simultaneously fight with and are fatally drawn to each other. Eventually, Pam finds a way to embrace Sally and become one with her. But what kind of relationship is that going to be?

“Cleavage” is a constant work in progress, an endless dissemination of questions about female identity that have to be reshaped as the play travels in time and space. To me, “Cleavage” is a ritual that changes time and teaches to practice waiting. Developing it, I use found text from feminist academic language to horoscopes as well as constantly seek to expand this palette into the personal – to depict moments where identity becomes inarticulate, moments of misunderstanding, of encounters with “the foreign” – and to weave them into the piece.
Aiste Ptakauske

I feel there are not enough psychologically complex and complicated female characters on the Lithuanian theater stage. That is why I appreciated “Cleavage” so much: it portrays female character that is deep and thought provoking, not just a walking cliché!
Inesa Žeimė, Chairwoman of the Board, Lithuanian Junior Doctors’ Association

Production at Vilde Teater, Tartu, Estonia, 2015
Directed by Aireé Pajur
Light and Sound Design by Margus Möll
Performed by  Anne-Mai Tevahi and Tuuli Rindemaa