It’s Not Like That (As It Seems to You)

“It’s Not Like That (As It Seems to You)”

Ingomar Vihmar: This play is my declaration of love to the theatre. I started writing it over ten years ago because I simply couldn’t do otherwise. I needed to explain the passionate relationship between me and the theatre. To myself. To get it off my chest.

What is it about? Theatre. The meaning and meaninglessness of theatre. (The meaning and meaninglessness of life.) Actors. Playwrights. Directors. Ordinary people. God. Many questions are asked in this story, but none are answered. It is brimful of paradoxes, just as theatre is, in my view. A new method rules out the previous one, which in turn rules out the one before it—and so on, until we come full circle back to the beginning. Nothing can be believed for good, and nothing can be known with absolute certainty. Every narrative gets mocked. Even the meanings of words are called into question. Which is more real—life or theatre? When is an actor more genuine: when they are performing, or when they are simply being?

The text explores the fears of an actor (a person): fear of failure, fear of making a mistake, fear of being humiliated. In short, the fear of being on stage. This play doesn’t know what it wants, but it knows it wants something!

What is real is not at risk. What is unreal does not exist.

Playwright and director: Ingomar Vihmar
Set designer: Kristel Zimmer
Composer: Hendrik Kaljujärv
Lighting designer: Priidu Adlas

Cast: Juhan Ulfsak, Mari Abel, Ester Kuntu, Kristina Preimann, Karl Birnbaum, Markus Andreas Auling, Herman Pihlak and Edgar Vunš

Premiere: 2 December 2026. Approximate duration: 2 hours, no interval.