We are offering five new productions for this season. September is dedicated to new generation of directors. Gerds Lapoška is one of them and his work is titled Pelēka Vasara, saulaina ziema (Grey Summer, Sunny Winter). Drawing inspiration from French New Wave cinema the creative team has made an adventure about the inner world of young people. In JRT Chamber Hall, director Marija Linarte will present her documental story Milžu cīņas (Battle of Giants), a tale about depression and rebirth in which the protagonist Anna enlists into Latvian National Guard.
October will bring Pelikāni un vīnogas (Pelicans and Grapes) directed by Alvis Hermanis, a staging of the novel Sideways by American writer Rex Pickett. It’s a comedy / road movie about midlife crisis.
Film director Aiks Karapetjans will make his debut as a theatre director. Together with playwright Justine Kļava they have made a tragicomedy Fēlikss, Anatolijs and Ilona in which its heroes are desperately trying to adapt to the wild nineties without losing their principles.
The last new production on Miera street is planned for November. Kurlmēmo zeme (Land of the Deaf-Mute) will see Chulpan Khamatova return to the role she played in the film of the same name (Strana Glukhikh, director Valeriy Todorovskiy, 1998) that gained her recognition. This time she will play in Latvian and on the stage of JRT. The material is based on a novel by Russian actress and director Renata Litvinova (after her country’s aggression against Ukraine she has left Russia and is residing in Paris). In today’s context, this story about organized crime in Moscow – mafia led by deaf people – has acquired a new meaning.
Next new productions will be presented on Lāčplēša street. The very first performance that will reopen the historical stage of The New Riga Theatre in March of 2024 is titled Sapņu tulkotāju sekta (The Sect of Translators of Dreams). It is based on the novel Dictionary of the Khazars by Serbian writer Milorad Pavić and will be directed by Alvis Hermanis. The staging involves all actors currently working in JRT.
Current motto of JRT is “Theatre that helps to live”. Its artistic director Alvis Hermanis adds: “Surely we don’t have any plans in becoming the best European or international theatre in the next five years. Our only ambition is to play for our own, Latvian, viewer.”