Lessons in the Latvian Language

“Lessons in the Latvian Language” is a sharp and humane story about Koļa, who was born and lives in Latvia and is now preparing for the state language exam, but in fact finds himself facing a much harder test: the inner need to belong, the fear of not measuring up, and the search for his place in this country.

This story is about a person who is constantly in a state of examination, not because he is “different,” but because the system demands endless proof of the right to be here. In this work, language is not a symbol of culture or pride in identity, but an institutional filter that defines the boundary between “allowed” and “not allowed.”

The production explores not ethnic conflict or division, but the psychological and political trauma of decolonization, the crisis of self-respect that arises in a society where a person lives under constant examination.

The inner voice also plays a significant role in the performance, an ironic, aggressive, sometimes funny, sometimes frightening voice. It comments, provokes, helps, humbles, and draws one back to old resentments. This voice becomes a metaphor for how not only personal trauma lives within a person, but also the echoes of the environment, propaganda, stereotypes, and unspoken social conflicts.

“Lessons in the Latvian Language” is not a play about language. It is a play about an exam and belonging.

NB: We do not recommend watching it under the age of 16. The performance contains coarse language.

Team

Idea and lead role: Vadims Bogdanovs

Cast: Zhanna Lubgane, Milena Savkina, Vanda Gibovska, Kristīne Veinšteina, Miroslavs Blakunovs, Marina Ivanova, Eduards Beļnikovs

Director: Edvīns Klimanovs

Playwright: Andrejs Timofejevs

Lighting and sound designer: Eduards Beļnikovs

Set and costume designer: Daria Vipulis

Composer: Jevgenijs Rosickis

Video operator: Miroslavs Blakunovs

Photographer: Jegors Afoničs

Producers: Marina Ivanova, Elīna Veinšteina

Design: Joren Dobkiewicz, Anna Jureviča

Communications: Alisa Puhalska

Translation: Marina Ivanova

Assistants: Alina Hačetlova, Viktors Andruškevičs, Viktorija Samušonoka, Vitālijs Kapustins

The performance uses the poem “Now Another Autumn Has Come Again” by Aleksandrs Čaks, the poem “The Little Man with a Backpack” by Arvīds Grigulis, and the poem “To the Slanderers of Russia” by Aleksandr Pushkin.