How can we maintain a balance between the need for self-defense and the risk of mirroring the same aggression we are fighting against? Can we respect each other's differences, stand firm in our own beliefs, and protect individual freedoms without infringing on the rights of others?

In CLAP & SLAP, these questions are explored through bodily and physical language: the two performers meet in brutal clashes, attempting to overpower each other, but also in moments of vulnerable interaction. On stage, a dialogue unfolds that fluctuates between combat and play, silence and sound, rejection and trust. The audience witnesses how the tension between confrontation and cooperation constantly shifts. Without promises of reconciliation, but without simple enemy images.

The restless balance mirrors the complex and paralyzing tension that arose in Eastern Europe – especially between Lithuania and Belarus – after Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine on February 24, 2022. The conflict is examined through historical, political, geographical, and social perspectives, but also through the personal experiences of Lisičkinaitė and Shugaleev.

As a politically engaged participant in the Belarusian revolution of 2020, Shugaleev took part in protests in Belarus, while Lisičkinaitė stood outside the embassy in Vilnius. Shugaleev was forced to leave his homeland; Lisičkinaitė chose to refrain from collaborating with Russian-speaking artists.

Now they meet in a theatrical space that opens for a dialogue seemingly impossible outside of art: a dialogue between fear and the necessity of action, between collective and personal responsibility, between personal tragedy and geopolitical catastrophe.

Without pretending to solve political or military conflicts, the performance seeks to evoke political and philosophical reflection on our ability to distinguish between responsibility and guilt, nationalism and patriotism, self-defense and aggression – between the desire to trust and the need to protect.