10/07/2015

Coming soon - the premiere of Alvis Hermanis’ production of BRODSKY/BARYSHNIKOV

On 15 October, the New Riga Theatre’s Large Hall will host the premiere of director Alvis Hermanis’ production of BRODSKY/BARYSHNIKOV, which the director is staging in collaboration with actor Mikhail Baryshnikov. The production’s set designer is Kristīne Jurjāne, while Gļebs Fiļštinskis is responsible for the lighting. The play is being produced by the New Riga Theatre in collaboration with Baryshnikov Productions.

Nobel Prize winning poet Joseph Brodsky and the legendary arts personality Mikhail Baryshnikov enjoyed a close friendship, which lasted for 22 years until Brodsky’s death in 1996. They will meet again on stage in this production staged by director Alvis Hermanis. In this special theatrical adventure, Baryshnikov will interpret Brodsky’s poetry. Together, Hermanis and Baryshnikov will take the audience on a journey into an imaginary world where it can empathise with Brodsky’s complicated, lyrical and incisive word games. As his poetry resounds in the poet’s native language, this production of BRODSKY/BARYSHNIKOV will unveil the poet’s world through text and movement.

According to Alvis Hermanis, “This will be a departure from normal theatrical plays. Instead, it will be something more akin to a spiritual séance. We spend our everyday lives on a horizontal level or dimension. This form of theatre offers you the chance to spend a couple of hours in an exclusively vertical dimension in which people are confronted with nothing other than the big issues.”

Mikhail Baryshnikov added, “This project is important to us. Alvis is venturing into unknown territory, which he invariably does; otherwise why bother? We are both greatly looking forward to our encounter with the audience.”

The play will take place in Russian with subtitles in Latvian. Tickets to the October and November performances of this production are sold out.

The production BRODSKY/BARYSHNIKOV has been included in Boris and Ināra Teterev’s arts programme TÊTE-Á-TÊTE 2015, which is taking place from 11 September to 30 October, offering the public a series of contemporary cultural events on a European scale.

The play features the poetry of Joseph Brodsky. The rights to use this poetry have been granted by the Estate of Joseph Brodsky, © 2015. All rights reserved.