Aleksandr Vampilov "The Eldest Son",
Mark Ravenhill "Sopping and Fucking",
"Roach Voices",
"The Town That Went Mad"

Aleksandr Vampilov "The Eldest Son", The National Theatre of Latvia
2 h 30 min
Directed by Regnārs Vaivars
Stage designer Anita Znutiņa
Actors Uldis Dumpis, Andris Keišs, Uldis Anže, Mārcis Manjakovs, Normunds Bērzs, Daiga Kažociņa, Zane Jančevska

The outstanding Russian playwright is a classic of Soviet literature, who lived a short and tragic life and in ten years wrote five plays. "Duck hunt", "Provincial Anecdotes", "Last Summer in Chulimsk", "The Eldest Son", "Farewell in July" have been successfully produced on theatre stages in Latvia. The author skillfully creates dramatic and tense relationships in mundane situations and shows contradictory, complex characters. His artistic challenge in the ideological context of his time was to depict the normalcy of life and the humaneness of that life. Even though A. Vampilov himself called his plays "comedies", their emotional tones approach the dramatic and tragicomic.

Director. Regnārs Vaivars (1973) Graduated from the Latvian Academy of Culture as an actor and director (1996), has played important roles - Shakespeare's Othello, Alyosha in "Brothers Karamazovs" by Dostoyevsky. Participated in international master classes, lectured at Reykjavik Arts Academy (Iceland) on O.Wilde's "Salome". Up till now the director has been creating performances " where the word is an impulse on the way to higher metaphysical experience". (Undīne Adamaite) He has also produced unorthodox performances in different styles: T. Ruzevich "White Wedding" (1996), L.Carol "Alice in Wonderland" (1997), multimedia opera "Rolstein on the Beach" (1997), G. Stefanovksy "Consulate" (1998), G. Genet "The Maids" (1998), "A Flight over Savannah in Mr. Mirror's Helicopter". based on the works of J. London (1998). His productions have participated in international festivals in Lithuania, Denmark, Sweden. With the unconventional production of O. Wilde's "Salome" (1998) at the New Riga Theatre in Regnārs has, in Latvian theatre circles aquired fame as a scandalous director.

Performance. The initial premise of the situation - a deceitfully obtained night's lodging after a missed train, slowly and profoundly turns into dramatic analyses of family relationships and characters. The work of the actors is impressive, revealing multiple layers of meaning. Regnārs as a director delves into the nuances of relationships and characters, for the first time (!) in conformity with the text of the play, and is not interested in "the good ones" and "the evil ones", but in people as such. "Without loosing the irony characteristic of him, the director has discovered the wise language of the pauses of psychological realism, that turns theatre not into a boring lecture hall but into art." (critic Undīne Adamaite).

Mark Ravenhill "Shopping and Fucking", Oskaras Korshunovas Theatre Vilnius, Lithuania
Author Mark Ravenhill (1967)
Directed by Oskaras Korshunovas
Stage designer Jūratė Paulėkaitė
Performers Airida Gintautaitė, Rasa Samuolytė, Dainius Gavenonis, Darius Gumauskas, Arūnas Sakalauskas, Vaidotas Martinaitis, Vidas Petkevičius

The first full-length play of the young London author, who received the annual award as the best foreign play of German critic in the professional magazine "Theater Heute"(1998). In spite of the depressing content, the play was a european hit and toured asross America and Europe. "His play is artfull combination of terror and humor finds antecedents in Harold Pinter, Edward Bond and Davis Mamet". (criticAlexis Green) The dramatic core of situation (London life in 90-s) shows the morality of contemporary urban life. "Every relation is likea business calculation". An underworld peopled by'bad statistics; youth seeking ways to escape from society. Characters Mark, Robby, Lulu, whose relationship are dependent on many, drugs, self- fear and are struggling limit pushers. It's a very dangerous game.

Director Oskaras Koršunovas (1968) studied in Lithuanian Music Academy, Department of Theatre (1993) Several performances in Lithuanian State Academic Drama Theatre based on the works of Daniil Charms and Aleksander Vvedensky. In 1993 the production "Old Women"he won the prize for best directing at the St. Petersburg Theatre Festival, it was shown at the international theatre festivals in Estonia, Austria, Russia, Germany, Lithuania, Sweden. "There To Be Here"has participated in international festivals in Estonia, Great Britain, Russia, Poland, Italy, Lithuania, Finland, Australia. "Hello, Sonia, Happy New Year" in international festivals in Estonia, Great Britain. " The Old Women 2" has participated in international festivals in Lithuania, Estonia, Italy. In 1997 "P.S. File O.K." by Sigitas Parulskis participated in "Homo Novus'97" in Riga.In 1997 his performances "There to Be Here" and "The Old Woman 2" were presented in the main program of Avignon festival and in festival Passages in Nancy. In 1998 he founded his independent theatre 1999 "Roberto Zucco " by R.Koltes was shown in the festival 10 Rencontres Internationales du Theatre in Dijon. In 1999 was selected to participate in the program THEOREM 2000 initiated and organized by Avignon Festival (will put on stage Master and Margareth by M. Bulgakov).

Performance. "It is very a deeply moving performance. Spectators must be receptiv,understanding, because the text applies to common problems, now about teenagers, now about transsexuals, now about free-thinkers and todays and future parents" O. Korshunovas Idea of the text and production is the comparing our life styles, rythms, human problems in artistical theatre form. Today theatre is capable of being relevant and needed depending on how well it is able to identity and mirror everyday and global tragedies, paradoxes and problems.

The Venus Theatre is a group of theatre professionals who produce theatre performances, interdisciplinary art events, street theatre and a great variety of performances in Helsinki as well as other Finnish towns. A group constantly searching for new forms in drama, experiments with various techniques: changing roles, gender - thinking, tramsmasks, improvisation. Venus specializes in re- writing such classial texts as Sheakespeare, Lorca, Chekov etc. "Friends of romantic theater hate this group." The mastermind and "mother" of Roach Voices is Elina Hurme, Cris af Enehielm isan actress and painter with exhibition experience in Finland, Russia, Sweden, Denmark, Portugal, Austria, Hungary and Italy, Sanna Salmenkallio studied classical violin at the Sibelius Academy and art at the Academy of Fine Arts, actress Hellen Willberg has also had an orchestra of her own, for which she wrote scripts and music.Pauliina Hulkko studied music at the Tampere Conservatoire, dramaturgy and direction at the Theatre Academy and the traditional art of Java and Bali in Bali. Arja "Appe" Vanajas studied ethnolmusicology at the University of Helsinki and taken part in many underground performance.

All the action and all the themes rise from musical or vocal impulses. It is an acoustic journey into timeless time and spaceless space. Women dressed in strange, ragged clothes, the atmosphere is convent-like, petrified, mystic. The women growl, mew, pant and shamanise. Each of them creates her own character, but together they are like a trained choir. In addition to their voices, atmosphere is created with lights, colours and scents. The performance follows the logic of dream where each performer works on the stage as an actor, director, scriptwriter and stagedesigner. Those who appreciate the magic of the creative moment and process will appreciate the performance the best.. Emotion is the logic of the perfromance and Chance its scriptwriter.

Roach Fish's Voice is a dramatic performance with the human voice and music playing the main roles. It is a theatre of moment, a living sound enviroment which gets its form and finds its intrigue during the actual perfromance. Unrestrained human voices and instruments and other artefacts played in all imaginable ways produce impulses which initiate the most extraordinary incidents.

Roach Firsh's Voice studies the union between the human voice and the sound enviroment of the different instruments and other artefacts. The members of the performing group directly interact and are a source of inspiration to one another. Roach Fish´s Voice strives to create a unique experience for the audience in every performance. The performance follows the logic of dream where each performer works on the stage as an actor, director, scriptwriter and stagedesigner The voices to be heard belong to Appe, Cris af Enehielm, Elina Hurme, Hellen Willberg and Pauliina Hulkko.

Method. Rehearsaling took two months daily chanting for several hours until performers reached different mental level, where the personality dissoleved giving space to sub-personalities, which have their own will. During the training they seeked a way to find the collective uncounsious, which is the base for this special group process. The process strives for an unhibeted irrational non-abalytical way of communication and creating a story as authentic as possible.

"The Town That Went Mad", Volcano, Swansea, Great Britain
VOLCANO in their prime …charged with adrenalin and theatralical vigour (London Evening Standard)
Lyrical words of Wordsworth and Blake, the sharp tongue of Caradog Evans and the bitter mind F.Nietszche. All other words are written by Paul Davies.
Directors Davies, Smith& Jones
Stage designer Andrew Jones
Actors Roy Sandler, Hywel Morgan, Emma Cater, Simon Thorp, Gill Lyon

The Volcano Theatre Company is Britain's most celebrated exponent of physical theatre. Formed in 1987, Volcano has established itself as one of the countries leading national and international touring companies. Volcano has a formidable reputation for the creation of high-energy theatre; theatre that stimulates the mind and assaults the heart. Its aim is to revitalise and transform; to remind that the thetare can still be a place of great tragedy, great sacrifice, great humor and ultimately great entertainment. Volcano's works are highly choreograped and visually stunning attempts to rescue theatre from its complacent malaise; to drag theatre into the 21-st Century; to reinstate the danger, the confrontation and excitement of live performance.

"A manic mix of politics, wit, sex, physically stunning set and lighting helps to destroy the cosy, cliched image of Wales…another unpredicable challenge to cultural hegemony from Volcano" (The Gardian) VOLCANO productions are unique, up-front, acrobatic and provocative; combining physical theatre and choreography with strong visual design to punctuate the works'political themes.