Kirill Havanski explores escape from an overwhelming world

Director Kirill Havanski’s new production explores people who feel trapped in life and seek a place away from everyday pressures. The play premieres at Tartu New Theatre, ERR reported.

“Where do I go when there is nowhere left to go?” centres on an imagined tunnel with a mysterious room deep inside. The characters have never seen the room, but want to reach it, believing it might be a place where wishes come true and happiness is possible. What it contains remains unknown.

Havanski said the idea reflects a sense that the world has become increasingly dystopian: politics has turned into a kind of performance, technological development creates uncertainty, and it is difficult to withdraw from social media.

He also sees people responding to information overload with nostalgia. Social media posts show scenes such as American classrooms in the early 2000s, which can prompt feelings of recognition and longing even among viewers whose own childhoods were different. Popular television series, meanwhile, often portray life as simple and predictable. “All of this somehow makes you think that there is simply too much of everything in the world,” he said.

The production is a “poetic therapy” and an attempt to help people find the strength to face the noise, Havanski said. Actress Grete Jürgenson compared the world to an image made up of a hundred colours: when they are all visible at once, it is hard to make out individual details, but focusing on one part makes the picture clearer.

Havanski said the production began with changes in his own life, including moving to a new city and events in his personal life that brought uncertainty and fear of the unknown. The idea of a place to go came to him one night as he was falling asleep. The tunnel and room came to represent a chance to step away when everything feels like too much, though entering the dark, unfamiliar, maze-like tunnel also requires courage.

During preparations, the cast visited the Estonian Mining Museum to experience an underground environment. Jürgenson has a personal connection to Ida-Viru County and was struck by the fact that life exists underground where sunlight does not reach. Havanski said the underground space felt both frightening and safe, and in some ways less frightening than everyday life and the chaos above ground.

The play’s title reflects the feeling that everyday life can become claustrophobic, Havanski said, as responsibilities, deadlines, relationships and unfulfilled ambitions pile up until a person feels there is no room to breathe.