Katarina Sits wants more risk in Estonian theatre

Actor Katarina Sits, a graduate of the 32nd class of the Estonian Academy of Music and Theatre’s drama school, says she is looking for risk, closeness and honesty in theatre. She spoke to ERR’s culture portal as part of its series introducing the school’s newest actors, directors and dramaturges.

Sits, who studied acting, is from Haapsalu and says she is currently exploring different possibilities. What interests her about people is “what cannot be analysed or explained by reason”.

Her first major theatre experience was The Nutcracker at the Estonia theatre. Since then, she has always felt that ballet is “one great magical world”.

If she had not been admitted to drama school, Sits believes she might eventually have become a plant grower.

Asked about her favourite actors in Estonia and abroad, she names the women in Florentina Holzinger’s production Ophelia’s Got Talent. Watching it, she says, was the first time she experienced something in theatre that she had never felt before.

Sits says she misses risk-taking in Estonian theatre. Her dream roles include a grotesque witch, noting that Ita Ever was extraordinary as the witch in Nukitsamees, or the complete opposite: a quiet soul whose every movement is carefully considered.

“Theatre takes us beyond everyday life and helps keep the soul alive,” she says.

What she seeks most in theatre is closeness, courage, honesty, beauty, joy and the hidden sides of life. She believes that if theatre did not exist, something else would fulfil a similar function.

Her recommendations are Lars von Trier’s film Antichrist, Pessoa’s The Book of Disquiet and Marta Aliide Jakovski’s production Fundamentalist.

In a quick-fire round, Sits chooses theatre over film, the front row over the back row, performance art over spoken theatre, room theatre over a large hall, and Shakespeare over Beckett.

Editor: Karmen Rebane