ASSITEJ Magazine 2019

Small Steps,
High Hopes
EVA-LIISA LINDER, MA, IS A THEATRE RESEARCHER AT
THE ESTONIAN ACADEMY OF MUSIC AND THEATRE, AND
A PHD STUDENT AT TALLINN UNIVERSITY.
Sleep a night in theatre?
Discuss sexuality with actors?
Listen to classical music at the
floor of National Opera with
your baby?
These are some achievements of educational
theatre in Estonia. In addressing young
audiences, theatre is blooming with new plays on
contemporary issues, like digital world, polluted
environment, gender roles, and school stress.
However, things are different with regard to
modern theatre aesthetics and techniques.
Although children’s theatre has come a long way
after the old-school puppet plays of Soviet times,
there are many fields to discover.
Three things are almost completely missing in the
professional TYA: baby theatre, comedies, and
interactive play. Rarely can we enjoy a free and
joyful atmosphere of participation and shared
space. As a theatre researcher and mother of two,
I dream of more.
Good News: New Issues and Educational Programs
VAT Theatre, the oldest independent company
in Estonia, is the only one consistently offering
educational performances with supportive
materials and artist talks, workshops of forum
theatre, improvisational theatre, and creative
writing.
The company is devoted to keeping up with social
change. They have produced a series of webthemed
plays on internet problems, the threats of
dark web and computer games.
The collision of nature and digital world is examined
in Mister Green that provides a one-hour wordless
adventure into the forest. Sexuality in the age of
media is debated in Klas Abrahamsson’s Swedish
play Do You Like Porn?, that has been running for
more than a decade.
In addition, modern issues are faced in Von Krahl,
the private theatre known for political avant-garde
since 1992. Recently, they have undertaken two
comedy pieces for children. Quick Stoat presents a
Finno-Ugric version of Mighty Mouse. Rubber T
mocks conservative gender roles and school
bullying in the style of stand-up comedy. Both
refresh the field of comedy where children had
until recently only clowns to amuse them.
Serious topics like drugs and environmental
problems are staged too, in Tartu, the second
biggest city in Estonia. The promising newcomer,
Must Kast Company, is defining theatre anew for
youngsters there. In addition to offering a socially
relevant repertoire, they organize open discussions
after every performance.
In regard to educational programs, the two biggest
theatres in Tallinn have proven they are thinking
fresh and new. Estonian National Opera is the
28 Towards the Unknown – Confronting the Present