Kalamaja summer theatre revives district’s crime and horror stories

Kalamaja summer theatre will bring crime-related horror stories from the district to the stage, ERR reported. The Kalamaja Museum is also offering tours in August featuring true stories linked to the production.

The tours accompany the play One and Only Love: A Slightly Horrific Story from Kalamaja, which is being staged at Teoteater behind Kalma Sauna. The summer theatre was conceived by Teoteater director Piret Viisimaa, who wanted to bring a Kalamaja story to life in Kalma Green.

Actor and museum marketer Kristjan Arunurm, who was born in Kalamaja, said the district’s cemetery park, formerly a cemetery, held several frightening secrets. He described stories about a woman who lost her child, went mad, dug up the stillborn baby and then abducted a child from Pärnu beach to raise as her own.

Arunurm also referred to the park’s Gate of Death, where a woman was said to haunt the area, as well as a home for the apparently dead that had once been established in Kalamaja.

Before the performance, visitors can join a tour led by Kristi Paatsi about events involving both the dead and the living in the district. Kalamaja Museum visitor guide Karoli Loo said the museum collected not only physical objects but also stories told by local people.

The play’s characters come to life in 1925. Arunurm said Kalamaja now appeared to be a glamorous district, but had once been somewhat like a slum. Loo said the district’s old rubbish heaps could provide valuable information, even though their importance was not always recognised today.

Kalamaja Museum will celebrate its fifth anniversary in September.