IN BLUE

Gunars Priede

IN BLUE

Life in 2 parts

Director - Māra Ķimele,

Assistant director – Linda Kalniņa,

Scenographer – Reinis Suhanovs,

Costume designer – Ilze Vītoliņa,

Lighting artist - Niks Tsipruss,

Composer - Toms Auniņš

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

High in the mountains of Georgia, in a town by the Black Sea, Rasma has been living with her seriously ill son for two months. Juris was injured in a car accident, as a result of which half of the family - father and grandmother - died. Juri is haunted by the gaze of the blue cow, which he noticed on the side of the highway just before the accident. It awakens something in the young man who has lived a simple life until now. He asks his mother to get volumes of folk songs that everyone knows about, but only a few have read. In existential isolation, the family deals with difficult questions about guilt, default and how to live on.

"A show about how life forces you to turn the mirror towards yourself and see something unexpected. Through leaving, Juris connects with his essence and, ultimately, with his people, with everything that cannot be felt only with hands. We also have a spiritual heritage. I want to make this show about the fact that leaving is not the end, but the highest point. Juris leaves in the light, he becomes enlightened and leaves," says director Māra Cumin.

Gunārs Priede wrote this play in 1972 in a few days. It immediately got on the list of unwanted plays and premiered in Estonia in 1973.

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The play is created with the support of the Boris and Inaras Teterevu Foundation of Valmiera Theater 2024/2025. in the season of the year. It is notable for the return of the theater to the renovated and modernized theater building on Lāčplēša Street, therefore the theme of the productions is homecoming and various manifestations of love.

From the range of new productions, the creation of five works has become possible due to the continuation of the powerful friendship of the theater with the Boris and Inara Teterev Foundation. They are William Shakespeare's tragedy "Romeo and Juliet" (directed by Inese Michule), Gunārs Priedes' "Zilā" (directed by Māra Ķimele), Anna Brigadere's fairy tale play "Sprīdītis" (directed by Reinis Suhanovs), another Gunārs Priedes' play "Thirteenth" (directed by Jānis Znotiņš) and Tomas Mann's novel "Magic Mountain" (directed by Tom Training).

This support is a continuation of the cooperation started during the centenary of the theater (2023/2024 season). With the support of the foundation, four classical works of Latvian drama were staged in it, which were recognized by the audience and critics: "Jāzeps and his brothers" (director Inese Mičule), "The widow's son" (director Viesturs Roziņš), "Valmieras puikas" (director Jānis Znotiņš) and "The lost son" (director Reinis Suhanovs).