The Blue One

High in the mountains of Georgia, 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 in which half the family—the father and grandmother—were killed. Juris is haunted by the intent gaze of a blue cow, which he noticed by the roadside shortly 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 wrestles with difficult questions of guilt, what has been left unsaid, and how to carry on living.

“A play about how life forces you to turn a little mirror on yourself and see something unexpected. Through his passing, Juris connects with his true nature and, ultimately, with his people—with everything that cannot be touched by hand alone. We also have a spiritual legacy. I want to make this play about how passing away is not the end, but the highest point. Juris departs into the light; he is enlightened and passes on,” 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 its premiere took place 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, the following productions reached audiences in the 2026/2027 season: Trešās impērijas bailes un posts (director Indra Roga). In the 2025/2026 season: Ļaunais gars (director Inese Mičule), Mēdeja (director Reinis Suhanovs), Tu būsi mana! (director Jānis Znotiņš), and Skroderdienas Silmačos (director Elmārs Seņkovs). In the 2024/2025 season: Romeo un Džuljeta (director Inese Mičule), Zilā (director Māra Ķimele), Sprīdītis (director Reinis Suhanovs), Četri balti krekli (director Jānis Znotiņš), and Burvju kalns (director Toms Treinis).

The friendship between the theatre and the Foundation began in the 2023/2024 season, the theatre’s centenary, when four classics of Latvian drama were staged: Valmieras puikas (director Jānis Znotiņš), Atraitnes dēls (director Viesturs Roziņš), as well as Jāzeps un viņa brāļi (director Inese Mičule) and Pazudušais dēls (director Reinis Suhanovs), which received particular acclaim from audiences and critics.

Photo: Matīss Markovskis