“Yerma” is an upcoming play by director Artūras Areima that will explore the theme of reproduction. The focus of the play is the tension between societal expectations, pressure to have offspring, and the individual’s freedom to create a life based on their own identity. The project will delve into how human reproduction is related to identity, role in society, and how the concept of fullness of life is understood. The play will explore different faces and contradictions of motherhood – helplessness in not being able to have children and fatigue, loss of self after having them.

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Infertility currently affects about 15 percent of couples in Lithuania. 4 out of 5 couples divorce after losing a child, every fifth woman experiences a miscarriage. Approximately 19 percent of women who have had a child suffer from postpartum depression. Although the statistics are telling, feelings related to the topic of human reproduction often remain behind closed doors – only within the family, within the couple. The team of the upcoming performance will seek to analyze the following questions with the work: what do people who are unable to have children and couples who have experienced a miscarriage experience? Where does social pressure to have a child come from? What is the role of society in such a personal decision of a person? The decision not to have children may be a rational human choice, but the social pressure to become parents is so strong that some couples do not even consider the possibility of not having children.

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