It Isn’t What It Seems (to You)

“It Isn’t What It Seems (to You)”

Ingomar Vihmar: This play is my declaration of love to theatre. I began writing it more than ten years ago because I simply could not do otherwise. My passionate relationship with theatre had to be explained. To myself. Got off my chest.

What is it about? Theatre. The meaning of theatre and the meaninglessness of theatre. (The meaning of life and the meaninglessness of life.) Actors. Playwrights. Directors. Ordinary people. God.

Many questions are asked in this story, but none of them are answered. It is filled to the brim with paradoxes, just as theatre is, in my view. A new method excludes the previous one, which in turn excludes the one before that—and so on. Until we come full circle back to the beginning. Nothing can be believed absolutely, and nothing can be known with one hundred percent certainty. All narratives are made fun of. Even the meanings of words are called into question.

Which is more real—life or theatre? When is an actor more real—when they are acting, or when they are simply being?

The text examines the fears of the actor (the human being): the fear of failure, the fear of making mistakes, the fear of being shamed. In short—the fear of being on stage.

This play does not know what it wants, but it knows that it wants something!

What is real is not threatened. What is unreal does not exist.

Author-director: Ingomar Vihmar
Artist: Kristel Zimmer
Composer: Hendrik Kaljujärv
Lighting designer: Priidu Adlas

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

Premiere on 2 December 2026.
Approximate duration: 2 hours without an interval