GARĀ DZĪVE / THE LONG LIFE

Director - Alvis Hermanis

The theme of this play is old age – one of the most unpopular issues nowadays.

Since the beginning of the 90s, our society has discriminated the elderly population, isolated and placed them in a condition of an anthropological experiment that resembles a reality show with unclear rules of the game – whether the winner is the one who dies first or last. Our performance provides a unique opportunity to become a witness of this “zoological garden”.

There is no play for the production of The Long Life. Hundreds of sketches have been created by the actors themselves, performed to each other and afterwards edited. As keener observers might have noticed, in the elderly people’s world things are endowed with a soul. Therefore to reveal this soul, the actors have challenged their dialogues through material things that have been the lifelong partners of elderly people. The authentic props for this performance have been collected from different people; they still carry the life story and soul of these people.

“The Long Life” is about one day in the lives of elderly retired people living in a communal flat in Riga, and the things around them.

Actors: Guna Zariņa, Baiba Broka or Liena Šmukste, Kaspars Znotiņš, Ģirts Krūmiņš, Vilis Daudziņš

Director – Alvis Hermanis
Stage and costume designer – Monika Pormale

Venue: The New Riga Theatre Museum Hall (at Talsu Street 1)
Duration: 1 h 50 min
Price: 22,00 EUR

Premiere on December 9, 2003