VIE Scena Contemporanea Festival - Kapusvētki

Kapusvētki

Graveyard Party

Alvis Hermanis - New Riga Theatre

15/10/2011 , 21:00
16/10/2011 , 17:00

Text Alvis Hermanis and the ensemble of Jaunais Rīgas Teātris
Concept development, director Alvis Hermanis
Photography Mārtiņš Grauds
With Vilis Daudziņš, Gundars Āboliņš, Andis Strods, Ivars Krasts, Varis Piņķis, Edgars Samītis, Andris Keišs, Ģirts Krūmiņš, Gatis Gāga, Iveta Pole, Maija Apine, Ansis Nikolovskis, Jēkabs Nīmanis

Music teacher Ansis Nikolovskis
Stage technician Jānis Liniņš
Music arrangements Jēkabs Nīmanis
Sound and video Gatis Builis
Light Mareks Lužinskis
Stage manager Zane Pīrāga
Project - and tour manager Eīina Adamaite
Co-production Jaunais Rīgas Teātris, Riga, Wiener Festwochen

Running time 1h 30'

National première

Played in Latvian with Italian subtitles

“Graveyard party” concludes a process of exploring the Latvian identity code.
For seven years, the actors of the New Riga Theatre and director Alvis Hermanis have been exploring the immediate realities of our daily life: by using real people and their life stories and transforming them by the actors’ fantasy they evolve into expressive prototypes of Latvian society. They have had a close up look at people in “Latvian Stories”, studied old age in the “Long Life” or time in “The Sound of Silence”, as well as our attitude towards things and events in other productions.

To round up this research process Alvis Hermanis has chosen a very special and unique Latvian tradition – a day to commemorate the passed away relatives, neighbours and friends called Kapusvētki (graveyard party). For a year actors next to studying of Latvian cemetery culture and colleting stories, also learnt to play the brass. In the performance one could hear the music preformed by newly made the New Riga Theatre brass band. The photos by Mārtiņš Grauds help to visualise the very special atmosphere of a graveyard party.
While focusing on the uniqueness of this event in Latvia, this production has also looked for similarities in the attitude of other nations towards the deceased and death in different cultures.

http://www.jrt.lv

Alvis Hermanis - New Riga Theatre

Alvis Hermanis, born in 1965, since 1997 is the artistic director of the New Riga Theatre (NRT). From 1987 until now has signed several productions including Oblomow, Ruf der Wildnis, Friedhofsfest (Kapusvētki), Ziedonis and Univers, Black Milk, Maidens from Wilka, Late neighbors and many other.
He has also won many prestigious awards, including the Award of Konrad Wolf in 2010 – about his work in German speaking countries, Berlin, Germany; Ziedonis and Universe was awarded as “The Best Performance of Latvian Drama” of the fall 2009/10 (Annual Show of the Theatre Performances in Latvia);he was awarded „Best director” at International Theatre festival Kontakt (Torun, Poland); with Martha from the Blue Hill, Grandfather he won the Grand Prix at the International Theatre festival Kontakt (Torun, Poland); Shukshin's Stories won the National Theatre Award of Russia The "Golden Mask" in the nomination "Drama/Best Large Scale Production".

The show

Programme