Three performers explore space and sound at Krulli

ERR published a review of the performance “What Has Been Written in My Flesh”, which brings Marika Vaarik, Lauri Lest and Urmas Lüüs together in a non-theatrical space at the Krulli factory building. The performance premiered on September 5 at Expedition Studio.

Reviewer Ülo Vihma arrived early at the former factory office building and was initially not allowed into the room. A person was sleeping inside and remained asleep after the performance began. At least 10 alarm clocks placed on a table rang for what seemed like ten minutes before the person finally woke up.

The performance used the room itself as its starting point. In line with the idea of an empty space suitable for theatre, the creators combined the space with sound to form an installation into which a person was placed.

Speaking with the performers after the show, Vihma learned more about their creative process. They had worked with the space, sound, light and the person within the room, considering different actions and ideas connected with each of them. Urmas Lüüs is primarily an artist, while Lauri Lest is more focused on sound art.

Lest and Lüüs were the initiators of the project. Expedition creator Lauri Lagle had told them to make something, and they did. Their work grew out of an attempt to explore how a person functions within a constructed environment rather than simply presenting a conventional spoken theatre performance.

The evening also highlighted the importance of a theatre buffet. Before the performance, Vihma asked whether there was somewhere to buy a drink while waiting. There was no buffet, but one of the attendants offered to bring him a small bottle of Rioja.

After the premiere, however, the audience was invited to a more elaborate reception. It included snacks, vegan cabbage soup, tom kha soup, wine, vodka and another stronger drink. Vihma chose the tom kha, which he found very good, and praised the rosé, white and red wines.

The reception allowed audience members to discuss the performance and move from its artistic reality back into ordinary life. Vihma joined a table with people of his own age, and the conversation continued after they discovered that they lived only a few hundred metres from one another. They shared a taxi home and later became Facebook friends.

The conversations also connected Vihma with Lest and Lüüs. His table companions had backgrounds in the management and accounting of cultural and theatre institutions, and one of them already knew the group well. The discussion covered the performance, theatre institutions and theatre more broadly.