The play is about the Lithuanian artist and composer M.K. Čiurlionis, who lived at the end of the 19th century. The ideas and thoughts of the artist-composer are successfully woven into the dramatic development of the protagonist of Chekhov's story. Andrei Kovrin, Master of Philosophy, exhausted and distressed, visits the Pesotsky estate, where he encounters a hallucination of a black monk. The monk serves as the protagonist's doppelganger, representing a deeper level of Kovrin's consciousness, his subconscious. Through conversations with the black monk, Kovrin's soul is dissected, exploring themes such as chosenness, the dichotomy of genius and mediocrity, and the dynamics between hero and crowd. In our interpretation, the Black Monk does not appear on stage; instead, he manifests through a woman and the music of Čiurlionis. Just as Čiurlionis applied the principles of music to his paintings, the play The Black Monk adopts a fugue-like structure, intertwining the thoughts of Chekhov and Čiurlionis within the characters of the play.
Directed by Nikolai Ringburg, the production received the Best Actress award at the 2013 International Youth Theatre Festival APART in St. Petersburg, recognizing Greta Susceviciute's performance in "The Black Monk."