Forest or child? «Elpa» at Daile Theater asks – what to choose for today’s person / Article / LSM.lv

After the beginning of the pandemic period, the Daile Theater has opened the doors of the Great Hall again. The work of the British playwright Duncan McMillan “Breath“It is staged for the first time in Latvia. The question of whether it would be more responsible to plant a forest for the benefit of the globe than to have a child is solved by two actors of different generations, and director Dmitry Petrenko is convinced that as a result one play managed to be shown differently in the stage version. –

The name of the British playwright Duncan McMillan has been read quite often on the posters of various Latvian theater performances lately, but so far not once in connection with his award-winning play “Breath”. Almost ten years after the world premiere in Washington, the Latvian premiere is marked by the fact that the Daile Theater interrupts the silence introduced by the pandemic in the Great Hall with this work. And how this material has reached the repertoire of the theater founded by Smiļģis is worth a separate story.

“It happened several years ago – my current colleague, actor Juris Žagars had watched this show in London and bought the play, came and gave it to me and said -” it’s your role and you have to play it, “recalls actress Ieva Segliņa .

“And he said – choose a director, no matter which one, but you have to do it.

And then it was forgotten for a while and when circumstances changed and Juris became a director, we went with that proposal. ”

Only then was director Dmitry Petrenko selected, who was preparing to stage a completely different work by Duncan McMillan at the Daile Theater before the pandemic began.

“Eve somehow thought I would feel and understand it, she gave it to me to read, and it was immediately clear to me that from the point of view of form, content, theme I can take a lot that resonates with me,” says director Dmitry Petrenko.

“It seems to me that he feels what is happening to the world right now, and secondly, he is able to write about it in a modern way,” the director comments on the work of playwright McMillan.

“I also like the way he looks at it – he looks at climate change and its problem, on the one hand, extremely seriously and civically, but on the other – he analyzes why people tend to worry about it or not worry about it.

This, I think, is extremely important and interesting for theater – not to preach any ideas, but to go into why someone wants to talk about it so much or someone who completely denies it. ”

In less than two hours, the protagonists of the story break through the cut-off of life with all the possible range of emotions in it.

Actor Gints Andžāns says: “As far as we know, the author wrote the work, and then his wife helped him to adjust it even more from the feminine side, so that both sides are shown as really as possible. And it’s a great honor to be with these people and watch them go through it, and maybe learn something in the future on how to react or not in such situations. ”

In addition to the embodiment of his image, the actor Gints Andžāns has also translated the material into Latvian.

The first viewers have already managed to appreciate the new production at the premiere on July 15,

“This material works wonderfully precisely, I am very happy with this show.

But the first is really that at last Daile Theater, after a long time, has material that hits very precisely in the time that speaks about today, about the feelings and problems of today’s people, ”comments theater critic Līga Ulberte.

Kristīne, the viewer of the premiere, notes: “If, while watching a movie, everything is colorful around, you almost don’t have to think about it, everything is shown and there are emotions that you have to cry at the end of the movie, then it’s cool. But if there are two people and a box on stage and you have to cry, then everything is fine. ”

“I am very happy about the actors, especially about Ieva Segliņš, and I also really liked the play itself. I am happy, uplifted, grateful for the event, ”emphasizes Kristīne Pasternaka, the audience.

On Friday, July 17, the second line-up will take place: Anete Krasovska and Kārlis Arnolds Avots.

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