Elina Masing and Viljandi students stage play about bitterness

Director Elina Masing and 15 graduating performing arts students from the University of Tartu Viljandi Culture Academy have brought their production Replica to the stage at Kanuti Gildi Saal, a performance venue. The play’s central theme is bitterness, ERR reports.

The production explores how society expects people to behave and what it forbids. On stage, the performers create situations in which socially assigned roles are cast aside and it is accepted that life is not always fun.

“When you imagine a situation in the future, you imagine it as perfect, but life is not perfect. Setbacks are part of life, but I feel some people get angry, some become bitter, and some give up simply to avoid being sad or becoming bitter, which is also sad. I would like to normalize that things are sometimes genuinely difficult,” Masing said.

Replica is Masing’s second production with students from the academy. She said the students wanted to think and develop ideas for themselves, and to make the texts that mattered to her relevant to them. They also found that bitterness is often a somewhat derogatory label people apply to one another, she said.

The production ultimately asks how people can avoid giving up while living in the world. Masing said the group had focused on not handing power or control over their lives to someone else. “Take it into your own hands; I decide. And if it doesn’t work this time, it will next time,” she said.