Naples Theatre Festival

Alvis Hermanis, born in Riga in 1965, is one of the most significant directors of his generation in European theatre. Since 1997 Hermanis has been the Artistic director of the New Riga Theatre, a lively young theatre with a contemporary repertoire in the centre of Latvian capital. His productions differ from each other quite markedly in terms of style and content, however, they are consistent in being orientated around the work of the actor and showing a scrupulous precision in the choice of their form and theatrical vocabulary. In April 2007, the director Alvis Hermanis was awarded the prestigious “(Dostojewskis‘” (Europe Prize for New Theatrical Realities) in Thessaloniki.

Hermanis trained as an actor at the Latvian State Conservatory. During the 80s he acted in films and in theatre, where his roles included Jean in Strindberg’s Miss Julie and Iago in Shakespeare’s Othello. He began directing in 1990. His 1992 project Like a Calm and Peaceful River is the Home – Coming, an adaptation of Steven Soderbergh’s film Sex, Lies and Videotape – one of his first productions at the Jaunais Rigas Teatris (The New Riga Theatre) – was acclaimed by the critics as “the best production of the season”. It was followed by Marquise de Sade after Yukio Mishima (1993), which was also awarded “best production” and in 1995 invited to the Baltic House Festival in St. Petersburg. Other productions included: The Portrait of Dorian Gray after Oscar Wilde (1994),Uguns un nakts (Fire and Night) after the play by the Latvian national poet Rainis, music by Janis Medins, at the Latvian National Opera (Latvian Grand Prix for Music 1996), Arcadia by Tom Stoppard (1998), Bungee Jumping by Jan Tätte (2000), which toured to Canada and the USA, and City by Yevgeny Grishkovyets (2001).

The Government Inspector by Nicolai Gogol (2002), which was also “production of the year” in Latvia, was presented at the 2003 Salzburg Festival as part of the YOUNG DIRECTORS PROJECT, where it won the coveted Young Directors Award. Following its spectacular European debut, this work have been seen at a wide range of leading festivals around the world, including the Kunstenfestivaldesarts in Brussels, Carrefour in Montréal, and the Wiener Festwochen in Vienna.

After this, Hermanis created Stasts par Kasparu Hauzeru (Story about Kaspar Hauser, 2002) and in 2003/04 the two-part project Gara dzive (Long Life) and Talak (After Gorki), based on Maxim Gorki’s The Lower Depths. Both plays were presented in June 2004 as part of the Biennale New Plays from Europe in Frankfurt/Main and Wiesbaden. Latviešu stasti (Latvian Stories) was then premiered at the Jaunais Rigas Teatris.

Ice – A collective book reading with the help of your imagination, an adaptation of Sorokin’s Ice, at schauspielfrankfurt was Hermanis’ first production at a German-speaking theatre (co-produced with RUHRtriennale 2005 and Jaunais Rigas Teatris). This was followed in 2006 by In The Burning Darkness by Antonio Buero Vallejo at the Schauspielhaus Zurich, Sonia by Tatiana Tolstaya (2006) and Latviešu Milestiba (Latvian Love) at the Jaunais Rigas Teatris. His most recent play Fathers was premiered at the Schauspielhaus Zurich in March 2007.

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