Co-production of spielzeit’europa /Berliner Festspiele and the New Riga Theatre
THE SOUND OF SILENCE
„ – a performance about the youth of our parents, about the time when they expected us, when we were conceived, when we were still in the bellies of our mums. – „
“The Sounds of Silence” is as if a continuation of the “Long Life”, just in the chronologically opposite direction. The action of this performance takes place in the same communal flat, only 40 years earlier, when the characters of the “Long Life” were still young. This staging is about youth, about lost innocence. Also about a very special time that we had at the end of sixties, when people were still united by the illusion of a collective happiness. It is very likely that this was the last collective utopia in the history of white people civilisation. Because nowadays collective utopia is possible only in the theory of arts. For instance, in the theatre.
Alvis Hermanis
Director: Alvis Hermanis Music: Simon and Garfunkel Stage and costume designer: Monika Pormale Photographer: MÄra Brašmane Participants: Guna Zariņa, Sandra ZvÄ«gule, Inga Alsiņa, Liena Šmukste, Iveta Pole, RegÄ«na Razuma, KristÄ«ne KrÅ«ze või Jana ÄŒivžele, Gatis GÄga, Kaspars Znotiņš, Edgars SamÄ«tis, Ivars Krasts, Varis Piņķis, Ä‚irts KrÅ«miņš, Andris Keišs
Fragments from film SELF- PORTRAIT, shooted in Riga, 1972., by Andris Grinbergs. Opening – November 9th, 2007 (Berlin) November 22nd, 2007 (Riga) Performance in 2 parts Duration: 3 hours 20 minutes (intermission included)
Awards: Grand PRIX, International Theatre Festival KONTAKT, Poland, 2008 The Press Award awarded by journalists of International Theatre Festival KONTAKT, Poland, 2008
Jaunais RÄ«gas teÄtris/ The New Riga Theatre LÄÄplÄ“ša iela 25/ Lacplesa street 25 Phone: +371-7283323 Fax: +371-7282945 www.jrt.lv
The New Riga Theatre is a professional repertory theatre that provides innovative art corresponding to the requirements of the independently-thinking contemporary spectator both in its content and form. The artistic principles of the NRT are simple: high professional, ethic and aesthetic quality. The theatre has an intelligent and attractive repertory of high quality focussed on a modern, educated and socially active audience. In the era of mass - production and stress the NRT wants to affirm humanism, vitality and emotions and search for the way back to harmony and simplicity! Although the New Riga Theatre is a state-owned repertory theatre it has also retained the spirit and manner of work of a theatre studio consistently keeping to the values of non-commercial art. The New Riga Theatre repertory is focused upon the study of theatre technology and not on the box-office incomes. The rehearsal period often lasts more than a year; productions are not made only for the large hall (470 seats) but also on other stages, also outside the theatre.
ALVIS HERMANIS (Born in 1965)
Educated as an actor at the Theatre department of Latvian State Conservatoire. In his performances A.Hermanis often plays with different concepts of post-modern aesthetics, signs, images and symbols of the Eastern and Western cultures. His performances are very different aesthetically, but all of them are characterised by perfect sense of form, stile and epoch. His theatre is a quest for new experience and new limits of reality, involving audio and visual arts – using video projections, slides and phonograms. He has also been the playwright, stage designer and an actor in his own productions. His productions have participated in international theatre festivals in Russia, Poland, Lithuania, Estonia, Slovakia, Finland, Germany, Austria, the USA, Canada, France, Belgium, Netherlands, Italy, Slovenia, Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, United Kingdom, Croatia, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria, Greece, Spain, Switzerland, Denmark, the Czech Republic, Chile, Colombia, Korea . At Salzburger Festspiele 2003 A.Hermanis received Young Directors Project Award (Max Reinhardt’s pen). In 2007 awarded Europe Theatre Prize for the New Theatre Reality, Thesseloniki, Greece. In 2008 awarded the Stanislavsky Prize in nomination Foreign Theatre, Russia, Moscow. Since 1997 artistic director of New Riga Theatre. Parallel to his work at the New Riga Theatre A. Hermanis has staged plays in Von Krahli Teatter Tallinn, Estonia (Šalajased pildid II, Loomav Pimedus, 1994), at the Latvian National Opera (Fire and Night, 1996), Schauspielfrankfurt (Kollektives Lesen eines Buches mit Hilfe der Imagination in Frankfurt, 2005), Schauspielhaus Zürich (The Blazing Darkness, by A. Buero – Vallejo, 2006; Fathers, 2007; Idiot. The Beginning of the Novel, by Dostoevsky 2008) Schauspielhaus Köln (Cologne Affairs, 2008), Theatre of Nations, Moscow (Stories by Shukshin, 2008).
