Play "Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead"

It is said of Nobel Prize in Literature laureate Olga Tokarczuk’s masterpiece that once you read it, it stays with you for life. The novel has captivated readers with its philosophical crime-thriller plot and its sweep of timeless themes. At its center is Janina, a determined woman with a complex character, whose passions are nature study and astrology. She is a modern romantic with the audacity of Miss Marple.

In a remote Polish village, where the teacher Janina feels like an outsider, local hunters suddenly begin dying one after another in the strangest of ways. All the evidence leads to a surprising conclusion: could it be that animals are truly guilty of a conspiracy and are taking revenge for their slaughtered kin? No one listens to Janina, who believes this is nature’s revenge. The intrigue thickens: where does humanity stand if nature may have other intentions?

The novel is being staged and its stage version created by Dutch director of Syrian origin Ola Mafalani. Together with talented Latvian artists, whom she calls her “dream team” - the scenography debut of and currently the world’s best-known Latvian designer Germans Ermičs, internationally acclaimed composer Krists Auznieks, talented choreographer Elīna Gediņa, and the outstanding costume designer duo Mareunrol's - Mafalani will offer audiences a visually grand poetry, unlike anything before seen on Latvian stages. It will intertwine with humor, mind- and soul-opening ideas, the smells of food, and unexpected stage magic.

The performance is in Latvian with English surtitles.

Vegetarian thriller. Author: Olga Tokarczuk | Director: Ola Mafalani