Actors – Gundars Āboliņš and Jevgēnijs Isajevs
Director – Alvis Hermanis
Designer – Kristīne Jurjāne

“There was a person and there isn’t a person any more. Only the name has remained – Sonja...” Tatiana Tolstaya

The performance is based on a short story by Tatiana Tolstaya. Sonja is an impressionistic miniature about a lonely woman on whom fate has played a mean trick which has, at the same time, become the greatest happiness of her life. Sonja is a little dense, a little ugly, a little lonely, but she does have some talents: she is an excellent cook and seamstress, and is great at getting on people’s nerves. “The character that has been created by Tolstaya combines huge contrasts: ugly in appearance and with a very sensitive inner world, a hard life and a delicate soul. I have entrusted a male actor to reveal these opposite poles,” says Alvis Hermanis, the director.

The New Riga Theatre (founded in 1992) is a professional repertory theatre that offers innovative art for independently thinking contemporary spectators. Its artistic principles are simple: to provide high professional, ethical, and aesthetic quality. The New Riga Theatre has been listed in the official programmes of all the major world theatre festivals.

The play is staged in the original language (Russian), for the language of Tatiana Tolstaya is an inseparable part of the story.

Duration: 1h 40min (no intermission)

Tickets available on the BOZAR website.