The Blue One

High in the Georgian mountains, in a city by the Black Sea, Rasma has been staying for two months with her seriously ill son. Juris was injured in a car accident that killed half the family—his father and grandmother. Juris is haunted by the fixed gaze of a blue cow, which he noticed by the roadside moments before the accident. It awakens something in the young man, who until then had led a carefree life. He asks his mother to obtain volumes of folk songs, which everyone knows about but few have read. In existential isolation, the family grapples with difficult questions of guilt, what has been left unsaid, and how to go on living.

“A play about how life forces you to turn a little mirror on yourself and see something unexpected. Through departing, Juris connects with his essence and, ultimately, with his people—with everything that cannot be touched by hand alone. We also have a spiritual inheritance. I want to make this play about how departure is not the end, but the highest point. Juris departs into the light; he is enlightened and goes,” says director Māra Ķimele.

Gunārs Priede wrote this play in 1972, in the space of a few days. It was immediately placed on the list of undesirable plays, and premiered in Estonia in 1973.

The production was created with the support of the Boris and Ināra Teterev Foundation in the 2024/2025 season. With the Foundation’s support, these productions reached audiences in the 2026/2027 season: The Fear and Misery of the Third Reich (director Indra Roga). In the 2025/2026 season: The Evil Spirit (director Inese Mičule), Medea (director Reinis Suhanovs), You Will Be Mine! (director Jānis Znotiņš), Skroderdienas Silmačos (director Elmārs Seņkovs). In the 2024/2025 season: Romeo and Juliet (director Inese Mičule), The Blue One (director Māra Ķimele), Sprīdītis (director Reinis Suhanovs), Four White Shirts (director Jānis Znotiņš), and The Magic Mountain (director Toms Treinis).

The theatre and the Foundation began their partnership in the 2023/2024 season, the theatre’s centenary, when four classics of Latvian drama were staged: Valmiera Boys (director Jānis Znotiņš), The Widow’s Son (director Viesturs Roziņš), as well as Joseph and His Brothers (director Inese Mičule) and The Prodigal Son (director Reinis Suhanovs), which received special acclaim from audiences and critics.

Photo: Matīss Markovskis