What Could Be Better Than This?

• •Directed by Inga Ungure

A Kitchen Epic

To his mother he was a rascal, to the chefs at restaurant "Vincents" he was the boss, and to his closest friends he was the old crab. Born in a refugee camp, raised in the iron ore mining town of Corby, and having worked in Canada, Jamaica, and Saudi Arabia, when chef Mārtiņš Rītiņš arrived in Latvia in the early 1990s, no one here knew him yet, just as they did not know Caesar salad, sushi, or beef tartare. He was 42 years old, with several lives already behind him and one more ahead.

Along with him came into Latvian cuisine recipes and ingredients we had never known before, and back came others we had forgotten. He provoked, amused, annoyed, inspired, and taught us to take salmon out of the fridge even when there was nothing at home. And right up to the last moments of his life, he kept searching for new summits, searching for what could still be better.

This is a story about a person's life and the meaning of food in it, from mother's milk to dinner at an expensive restaurant, from the family holiday table to banquets for the world's most influential politicians. A pinch of salt and pepper, and all that remains is one thing: to enjoy this together with you!

The performance was created inspired by Mārtiņš Rītiņš's archive of cooking shows, memories from people around him, Linda Apse's book "De Profundis - Mārtiņš Rītiņš", and Astrīde Rozīte's book "A Cookbook for Mārtiņš. People Who Have Met Me".

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Co-authors and performers: Rolands Beķeris, Gatis Maliks, Agnese Jēkabsone, Polina Čerņenoka, Mārtiņš Kalita, Santa Breikša, Armands Kaušelis, Valts Skuja, Kārlis Artejevs, Hugo Puriņš

Playwright - Laila Burāne

Set designer - Austra Sniķere

Costume designer - Berta Vilipsone-Ieleja

Movement artist - Kristīne Brīniņa

Composer - Edgars Raginskis

Lighting designer - Mārtiņš Feldmanis

Premiere on May 23, 2026