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In may 2008 director Andres Noormets collected a group of people who seemed to be perfect in order to produce a piece that would talk about Estonians in today's world and today's world in Estonians. The initiator of the idea was notafe (Noore Tantsu Festival/ notafe) in Viljandi that needed own productions for festival's programme. The festival offered a possibility to co-operate for artists who otherwise most likely wouldn't have met in their everyday theatre work. The group consists three professional actors – Anneli Rahkema, Marianne Kütt and Tarmo Tagamets, one folk-musician, also a singer-songwriter – Mari Kalkun and one improvising multi-instrumentalist Taavi Kerikmäe + a young theatre-technician Rene Liivamägi. All these performers possessed a remarkable history being on the stage but it was their first time to participate in such a frame of theatre that stands between contemporary dance and non-verbal performing. Therefore “vaterland” is a performance that is a “united body” of the performers in the space of alternative theatre – at the same time a statement but also a challenge. Vaterland provides extremely original, ironic and even cutting edge sharp view into the essence of human being (in Vaterland, though, first and foremost Estonian). There is no such human person as seen on stage, there is no human person who isn’t like the persons on stage. Kairi Prints - “Postimees”
next performances:
*12.07.2010 in viljandi, estonia (notafe 2010)
*6.05. 2010 in hungary, pecs (the european capital of culture 2011) *14.04.2010 in rakvere;
VATERLAND
Director and designer: Andres Noormets
Musicians: Mari Kalkun and Taavi Kerikmäe
Actors: Marianne Kütt, Anneli Rahkema and Tarmo Tagamets
Technical support: Rene Liivamägi
Premiere: Young Dance Festival, July 7, 2008
Duration: 55´
the performance has taken place:
2x in viljandi, 5x in tallinn, also in võru and in tartu (estonian DRAMA theatre festival), january 31st 2010 patumthan festival in thailand
REVIEWS:
ANDRES NOORMETS TUNED IN THE FESTIVAL
By Enn Siimer, Sakala
Vaterland, directed by Andres Noormets, was presented to international audience at the Young Dance Festival
Was it theatre or dance performance or musical revue with actors? One might also ask: how reasonable is to perform hardly definable show at the dance festival?
In the modern world of dance and theatre limits between art forms are vanishing. Videofilms and drama texts are used in dance, novel means and tools in theatre. Whether theatre or dance, it’s essential to keep it interesting and offer the audience a joy of widening the horizon.
This is exactly what Vaterland brought to viewers, thanks to director’s clear and simple concept.
Vaterland was fascinating and exciting. It set up the ideal to strive towards for the following days of the festival: harmonious perfection as the antipode of everyday life and struggling.
Vaterland was surprising and provided much to think about. Think about vanishing limits between theatre and dance. Feel sorry that so few people came to see the show. Feel glad about the theatre professionals among the audience. They were probably attracted by a name of director.
Three actors played on a so-called stage which was made of three podiums. Marianne Kütt, Anneli Rahkema and Tarmo Tagamets, two women and one man, everyone being a separate universe.
Two musicians were standing on both sides of the stage: Taavi Kerikmäe on the right side and folk musician Mari Kalkun on the left side. There was much music, now and again music seemed to be a trigger of all action.
Performance began with some tacts of Estonian national anthem, this transformed into Taavi Kerikmäe’s sarcastic solo improvisation on electric Hiiu table harp. Actors were standing and moving their lips during this solo like sportsmen before competition.
And then it began: every actor had a specific task. A woman ripped off her clothes in a rage, angry with herself and a whole world. Other woman started to calmly dye her hair and get busy with the vacuum cleaner, trying to catch every last particle of dust. The man shaved his bold head with great care for a long time and meditated with his entire body.
Sometimes in the role, sometimes to themselves
On the background of it all (or did the action form a background to the music?) were musical improvisations performed by Hiiu table harp, accordion and human voice. Musical phrase From sun forsaken land cut into the scrambling of three actors.
The focus of viewers’ attention was drawn from one thing to another. Action was syncronized time after time, creating rhythmic base for musicians or other actors. All three actors reached out for food at the exact same time, though everyone differently, with her/his own rhythm and purpose. All three listened to the news from the radio at the same time, everyone to the different radio station, male actor listened to the Russian news.
Did the characters played by actors had their own temper in a psychological sense of the word? I don’t dare to answer this question unambiguously. Sometimes they were in a role, but mostly they were engaged with themselves. In action. Scrambling. Just very rarely glancing (with a smirk?) at each other or audience.
Words matter only as musical phrases
There was everything in Vaterland, words – pillar of theatre – less than anything else. Even when words prevailed (when Taavi Kerikmäe explained the structure of Heino Eller’s musical work Kodumaine viis (Native Melody) very thoroughly in English), their meaning had no relevance. Words had relevance only as part of musical phrase.
The backbone of the performance was rhythm. Not drumming, but creating life and motion, preceding any action and giving it inner system.
Punch line of the evening was the perfect presentation of Heino Eller’s Native Melody. This gave everything else a whole new meaning. It revealed nature’s harmony and divine beauty which exist in spite of our actions or despite whether we are able to see and sense it around us.
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DANCE -MADE OF SOLID GOLD AND SHARP AS A KNIFE
By Kairi Prints, Postimees
All the lonely people, where do they all belong? This phrase from The Beatles’ Eleanor Rigby haunts you all the way through Vaterland, performance by Andres Noormets. Who has seen people in Heinz Edelmann’s film Yellow Submarine knows what I am talking about.
Everyday actions arranged in accordance with static rhythm hypnotize the audience, you can’t get your eyes off the stage for a second.
There are three tables, three actors and approximately three times three hundred things on a stage. Actors’ relation to things can begin. Action does not cease, every character has his/her own business to take care of, though everyone’s movements are synchronized and rhytmic.
Musicians stand at the both sides of the stage. It seems like different actions on the stage have been sampled on the play of Hiiu table harp, accordion and singing.
Shaving, drying hair, splashing with water, counting the coins, even browsing newspaper has the same rhythm as music. There is more to it: everything happens in accordance with arranged time-table. Actors take random glances towards the music stend at the other end of the room, above which the big clock shows the exact time.
At 21 o’clock three solitary people turn on their radios to listen to the news. As the news are real, so is everything else. Audience can enjoy the smells of hair dye, shaving gel, food, coffee etc.
All the lonely people, where do they all come from? Performance ends with Heino Eller’s musical piece Kodumaine viis (Native Melody). Now it’s clear where all these people come from. From amongst us, they are us. Actors look at each other for a very first time, as if discovering the existence of others, although they have been borrowing ventilator, vacuum cleaner and other things to each other during the performance.
Vaterland provides extremely original, ironic and even cutting edge sharp view into the essence of human being (in Vaterland, though, first and foremost Estonian). There is no such human person as seen on stage, there is no human person who isn’t like the persons on stage.
The whole concept doesn’t have to be clear to audience. Merely visually Vatreland is solid gold and unformulated thoughts this performance generates only ennoble it. And themselves.
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JOYFUL AND IRONIC GLIMPSE AT THE ESSENCE OF AN ESTONIAN
By Evelin Lagle, Sakala
Vaterland is being performed again by Eve Stuudio (organiser of the Contemporary Dance Presentation) in co-operation with Traditional Music Centre.
Italian contemporary choreographer Francesco Scavetta with Norvegian ensemble Wee kicked off the 4th season of Contemporary Dance Presentation last Friday. This season offers the audience in Viljandi a wonderful opportunity to see performances by Estonian and foreign alternative theatres.
Subtle self-irony
Three writing desks with lamps on them, books, radios, flower, make-up, coffee cup, money jar and all kinds of other stuff you could find on your desk at home. Three people on their habitual course through a usual day – as we all are one moment or another, everyone a bit differently.
This is a picture brought to viewers by Andres Noormets’ performance Vaterland this afternoon in the Traditinal Music Centre.
Three actors – Marianne Kütt, Anneli Rahkema and Tarmo Tagamets – put peculiar Estonian nature under magnifying glass during the most usual actions.
Pedantic scrubbing – catching every last particle of dust with a vacuum cleaner, brushing a chair – recalls a joyful memory of one’s grandmother’s or neighbour’s exaggerated desire for cleanness. Designing a bold man’s hairdo – shaving off the very last hair – is another great example of overdone accuracy.
Brushing teeth with numbness on a face, exercising with a blank look, or browsing a telephone book are very good examples for modern society’s prevailing attitude of doing for doing. Eating instant noodles while taking time expresses the need of an Estonian to be faster, more successful and better in every way than a man next door.
Pleasant entirety
Director Andres Noormets doesn’t dismiss a possibility for a change: to break free from a usual everyday life: e.g. Marianne Kütt tears off her black dress, Tarmo Tagamets pulls a book into pieces.
As leniently as this initiative to change emerges it also vanishes, moves to the backgroung. At the end of a show Marianne wears a black dress again and everyone stands up dutifully to listen to the beautiful sound of Heino Eller’s Native Melody.
Live music performed by Mari Kalkun and Taavi Kerikmäe supports the general atmosphere. Mari Kalkun makes music with a traditional flavour, Taavi Kerimäe improvises with great fervour. They balance each other and create a pleasant entirety.
Vaterland leads us comfortably to contemplate about ourselves, our way of thinking and our actions. Direct contact with the audience is created by commonly known and generally understood actions, covered topics are brought to a personal level.
We are shown – joyfully and discreetly – our own peculiarities. Isn’t this one of the great possibilities of art: to step aside for a moment and show how, where and why we are what we are, to explore old and create new worlds.
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