On Thursday, she sent a letter to Culture Minister Arūnas Gelūnas and the National Drama Theater director general Martynas Budraitis over possibly underage performers in Italian director Romeo Castellucci's play "On the Concept of the Face, Regarding the Son of God."
The director has said the play should feature children from Lithuania. "Sometimes I work with old people, sometimes I work with children, as well. I will work with them in Vilnius, too," the director has told Lietuvos Rytas daily.
The play has come under criticism from the Church and the public for allegedly mistreating a portrait of Jesus Christ.
Žiobienė suggested that the culture minister and the head of the theater should "address the matter of participation of children as viewers and performers in the play and take measures envisaged in legal acts to prevent violations of children's rights and lawful interests during the play and other public events."
In her opinion, authors of the play and organizers of the event should also be socially responsible and take measures to prevent violation of children's rights and interests.
The controversial play should go on stage this weekend as part of theater festival Sirens, which is sponsored by the state. Earlier this week, the plans triggered debates in parliament – parliamentarians discussed a resolution, saying that the play scorned religious symbols and incited religious hatred and, therefore, should not be financed from the state budget.
The play features a fragment of the Italian Renaissance painter Antonello da Messina's painting Salvator Mundi, which portrays Jesus Christ. In the play, Christ overlooks relations between a father and a son. The elderly father who is unable to hold faeces and taints his son's apartment.
Parliamentary statement
A group of Lithuanian parliamentarians have urged the society to boycott the play.
The public statement was issued on Friday by 35 parliamentarians. However, the signatures are still being collected.
Among main signatories of the document were members of the ruling political group of Homeland Union – Lithuanian Christian Democrats, including group elder Jurgis Razma, Agriculture Minister Kazys Starkevičius, and Social Security and Labor Minister Donatas Jankauskas.
The document urging to boycott Romeo Castellucci's play was also signed by members of the Labor Party and the Christian Party, as well as the mixed parliamentary group.
The MPs said they decided to pass the statement after the Social Democrats sabotaged the adoption of a resolution to that effect by getting the discussion adjourned to after the performance.
