Blue

Gunars Priede

Blue

Life in 2 parts

Director - Māra Ķimele,

Director's assistant - Linda Kalniņa,

Set designer - Reinis Suhanovs,

Costume designer - Ilze Vītoliņa,

Lighting designer - Niks Cipruss,

Composer - Toms Auniņš

Cast: Artis Jančevskis, Ieva Puķe, Anna Nele Āboliņa, Tālivaldis Lasmanis, Januss Johansons, Baiba Valante, Māra Vīgante

High in the mountains of Georgia, in a city by the Black Sea, Rasma and her seriously ill son have been staying for two months. Juris was injured in a car accident in which half of the family died - his father and grandmother. Juris is haunted by the intense stare of the blue cow, which he noticed by the roadside a moment before the accident. It awakens something in the young man, who until then had lived rather carelessly. He asks his mother to bring him volumes of folk songs, which everyone knows about, but which only a few have actually read. In existential isolation, the family tackles difficult questions about guilt, what has been left unspoken, and how to live on.

“The performance is about how life forces you to turn the little mirror toward yourself and see something unexpected. Through leaving, Juris connects with his essence and, in the end, with his own people, with everything that cannot be touched only with the hands. We also have a spiritual heritage. I want to make this production about the fact that leaving is not the end, but the highest point. Juris goes into the light, he is illuminated and goes away,” says director Māra Ķimele.

Gunars Priede wrote this play in 1972 in the space of a few days. It was immediately added to the list of undesirable plays and had its premiere in Estonia in 1973.

***

The performance is being created with the support of the Boris and Inara Teterev Foundation in Valmiera Theatre's 2024/2025 season. It is significant for the theatre's return to the renovated and modernized theatre building on Lāčplēša Street, which is why the theme of the production is returning home and the various manifestations of love.

Among the new productions, the creation of five works has become possible thanks to the continuation of the theatre's powerful friendship with the Boris and Inara Teterev Foundation. These are William Shakespeare's tragedy “Romeo and Juliet” (director Inese Mičule), Gunars Priede's “Blue” (director Māra Ķimele), Anna Brigadere's fairy-tale play “Sprīdītis” (director Reinis Suhanovs), another play by Gunars Priede, “The Thirteenth” (director Jānis Znotiņš), and Thomas Mann's novel “The Magic Mountain” (director Toms Treinis).

This support is a continuation of the cooperation that began during the theatre's centenary (the 2023/2024 season). During that season, with the foundation's support, four works of Latvian dramatic classics were staged and won acclaim from audiences and critics: “Joseph and His Brothers” (director Inese Mičule), “The Widow's Son” (director Viesturs Roziņš), “Valmiera Boys” (director Jānis Znotiņš), and “The Prodigal Son” (director Reinis Suhanovs).