A Totalitarian Romance
World premiere.
In Estonian with English and Russian translation.
Translated into Estonian by Ene Paaver and Ilona Martson.
Collaboration between Vaba Lava and Estonian Drama Theatre. Director Hendrik Toompere Jr.
This is the first collaboration between the Estonian Drama Theatre and Vaba Lava. These two theatres are connected through Lithuanian playwright Marius Ivaškevičius who was the curator at Vaba Lava in seasons 2019 2021. Estonian Drama Theatre, Ivaškevičius and director Hendrik Toompere Jr are connected by the play “Expulsion or the Chronicles of an Apple“ which was in the theatre’s repertoire for six years.
Marius Ivaskevičius wrote the play “A Totalitarian Romance” based on his travels in Central Asia. The biggest boost to write this play came from talks with local theatre legend Barzu Abdurazzakov.
Barzu’s narrative evokes associations in the author’s memory and throws him together with the audience into the Stalinist era, while the metaphor of the “mankurt” – the way in which a formerly rebellious prisoner is made into an ideal slave through physical and spiritual violence, ignorant of his past and as loyal as a dog to his master – draws parallels with the fate of broken artists in the USSR at that time. The central parallel here is Mikhail Bulgakov, who at the end of his life wrote a play in glorification of Stalin, which in the end actually killed its author.
During Freedom Festival, a staged reading of this play will take place.
