In 2010, Itaru Sasaki from Otsuchi, Japan, learned that his beloved cousin had cancer and only had three months to live. After his cousin’s death, Sasaki built an old telephone booth in his backyard so that he could communicate with the deceased every day and have his words carried away by the wind.

In 2011, a tsunami struck the Otsuchi area, killing ten percent of the city’s population. Gradually, people became aware of the telephone booth and started visiting Itaru Sasaki’s garden to call their lost loved ones.

From 1 March 2022, just one week after Russia started the war in Ukraine, an old telephone booth, identical to the wind phone that stood in Japan, was installed next to the Lithuanian National Opera and Ballet Theatre. People were invited to come and ‘call’ those to whom they didn’t have the chance to say what they wanted in time, and now it was too late. In over six months, the phone has been picked up about 4000 times. The audio recordings of all the authentic stories became the basis for the opera’s libretto.

The telephone booth opera Things I Didn’t Dare to Say, and It’s Too Late Now is a sensitive, subtle, bright and hopeful story about a grieving person. At the same time, it is a clear cut through the geographical territories opened up by grief, a journey towards encounter, reconciliation and the experience of the world as a whole.

Director and Dramaturge — Kamilė GUDMONAITĖ

  • Composer — Dominykas DIGIMAS

  • Set Designer and Author of Video Projection Concept — Barbora ŠULNIŪTĖ

  • Choreographer — Mantas STABAČINSKAS

  • Costume designer — Juozas VALENTA

  • Light Designer — Julius KURŠYS

  • Video Designer — Jurgis LIETUNOVAS

  • Music Director and Conductor — Ričardas ŠUMILA

  • Choirmaster — Povilas BUTKUS

  • Director’s Assistants — Agnė AMBROZAITYTĖ, Kotryna SIAURUSAITYTĖ, Deivydas VALENTA

  • Translator — Erika LASTOVSKYTĖ

CAST