FREIMANIS

Linda Rudene

• •Director – Mārtiņš Kalita

Musical performance

He lived fast and without brakes. He could write a song in fifteen minutes. He proudly shared a beer with his dog. And it was impossible to argue with him. Etiquette did not apply to him, and he adored onions. The chinchilla that drowned in a flowerpot he kept in the freezer, and he calmed his nerves by knitting. His religion was friendship, his homeland of happiness was the stage. That is only a tiny part of what reveals Mārtiņš Freimanis’s paradoxical, contrast-filled personality.

Almost fifteen years have passed since Freimanis left, and yet he is still here in radio stations, in memories, in stories. Full of paradoxes and contrasts, untamed and shameless.

Mārtiņš more than once asked that no drama be made out of his life story, but he lived in such a way that this request would be hard to fulfill.

In his short life, Freimanis managed to leave behind a vast musical legacy and almost as many legends about his personality. His closer and more distant contemporaries still ask themselves whether the songs about the sky and flying away were a prophecy or a smothered cry for help. There are many versions, and although the outcome cannot be changed, it is intriguing to guess what kind of person he was, someone we can now restore only through memories and immortalized moments.

Memories are almost the same as fantasies, and with time it becomes impossible to distinguish between them. Especially when we talk about Freimanis, who, even during his lifetime, freely blurred the line between truth and fantasy. That is why this will not be a documentary biographical story, but a collage of moments about a person’s dual nature. About weaknesses that break and consume, driving one to extremes. And about an unappeasable emptiness within, which is easier to sing than to survive.

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Cast: Valts Skuja, Agnese Jēkabsone, Gatis Maliks, Kārlis Artejevs, Hugo Puriņš, Rolands Beķeris, Agnija Dreimane, Santa Breikša, Polina Čerņenoka

Musicians in the performance: Normunds Kalniņš, Kaspars Boroduško, Raitis Eleris, Miks Akots

Set designer – Valters Kristbergs

Costume designer – Ilze Vītoliņa

Choreographer – Inga Raudinga

Music director – Normunds Kalniņš

Lighting designer – Niks Cipruss

Video artist – Valters Vuciņš

Premiere on February 28, 2026